AUTOMAKERS
Fiat Chrysler investigated
French investigating magistrates are to open a probe into automaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV for suspected cheating in diesel emissions tests, judicial sources said on Tuesday. The investigation follows a recommendation from the French anti-fraud office and is to be run by public health magistrates, they said. France is already investigating global automobile heavyweights Volkswagen AG and Renault SA for allegedly fitting engines with devices designed to fool emissions test equipment, making cars seem less polluting than they actually are. US-Italian-owned Fiat Chrysler is one of the world’s top 10 automakers. It has already been accused in the US of emissions cheating.
BANKING
Wells Fargo in ATM upgrade
Wells Fargo & Co plans to upgrade all 13,000 of its ATMs next week to allow customers to access their funds using their mobile phones instead of traditional bank cards. The announcement was made by Wells Fargo chief executive Tim Sloan on Tuesday at an employee town hall in Orlando, Florida. While banks such as JPMorgan Chase & Co and Bank of America Corp have announced similar upgrades to their ATMs, those are still being rolled out. Wells would be the first to upgrade all of its ATMs with the feature across the US. To access their money, customers would get unique eight-digit codes from their Wells Fargo smartphone app and enter the code into the ATM along with their PIN number. The machines would still accept debit cards as well. “Whether a customer happens to have a card on them or not, [the upgrade] provides another simple and secure way to withdraw cash at any of our ATMs,” Wells Fargo head of virtual channel operations Adam Vancini said.
BANKING
UBS to pass on ECB charges
UBS Group AG is extending charges on cash holdings to more of its customers, becoming the latest bank to pass on the eurozone’s negative interest rates. The world’s largest wealth manager has introduced a charge of 0.6 percent on euro-denominated accounts with cash holdings exceeding 1 million euros (US$1.08 million), the bank told clients in a letter seen by Bloomberg. UBS confirmed the content of the letter. “This charge reflects our costs resulting from the continuing extraordinarily low interest rates in the euro area and increased liquidity regulations,” the bank said in the letter. Clients who do not agree to the conditions need to inform UBS and close their account by the end of next month. The European Central Bank is trying to revive the eurozone economy by charging banks to keep money overnight at the central bank rather than lend or invest it, and by purchasing bonds to drive borrowing costs lower for companies.
LUXURY GOODS
Hermes profit surges 10%
French luxury handbag maker Hermes International SCA reported a 10 percent jump in full-year profit, boosted by Asian sales of leather goods and Birkin handbags, and as tourists return to its stores in Europe. Operating profit climbed to 1.7 billion euros on an adjusted basis, the Paris-based company said yesterday in a statement, in line with the average analyst estimate. The profit margin widened to a record 32.6 percent of sales from 31.8 percent the previous year. The luxury industry has been reporting signs of improvement after years of ebbing demand in China and a slowdown in European tourism. Tiffany & Co reported higher-than-expected earnings last week.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last