BANKING
BOE to boost fees on Brexit
The Bank of England (BOE) plans to boost fees on British banks to recover £5.4 million (US$6.7 million) of regulatory costs associated with Brexit. The British Prudential Regulation Authority on Friday said that the nation’s withdrawal from the EU “will require a significant amount of work” to review rules and respond to industry questions. The central bank said the industry might need to pay more money in the future if further costs are identified. It included the new fee in its proposed levies on the industry for 2017-2018.
RUSSIA
Central bank cuts key rate
The central bank on Friday cut its key rate for the first time in six months and said more cuts were coming, offering a welcome boost to the country’s struggling economy. Falling inflation gave the central bank the leeway to shave a quarter-point off its headline rate and promise more easing down the road. The central bank announced the cut to 9.75 percent after a regular monetary policy meeting.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
Credit Suisse hikes bonuses
Credit Suisse Group AG increased its bonus pool 6 percent, defying a trend toward smaller payouts at many of its peers in an effort to prevent an exodus of talent from its investment banking and Asian operations. The bank awarded 3.09 billion Swiss francs (US$3.1 billion) in incentive pay for last year, an annual report released on Friday showed, even as charges tied to legal settlements pushed it to a second consecutive annual loss. The bank last year posted a loss of 2.7 billion francs as it absorbed charges from a US$5.3 billion settlement with the US Department of Justice over its pre-crisis mortgage securities business.
FOOD MAKERS
Kraft Heinz lays off 200
Kraft Heinz Co has laid off 200 white-collar workers in Canada and the US. The company is realigning its administrative functions to be more efficient, Kraft Heinz senior vice president of corporate and government affairs Michael Mullen said on Friday. The company did not say where the layoffs occurred. Kraft Heinz has about 41,000 employees worldwide. The workers being laid off have all been notified and Mullen said the company appreciates their contributions.
MINING
US court voids most of suit
Brazilian miner Vale SA on Friday said the US District Court for the Southern District of New York annulled nearly all parts of a class-action lawsuit against the company and executives over the collapse of a tailings dam in Brazil in 2015. The only parts of the case that remain ongoing are linked to specific statements made by Vale in 2013 and 2014 and a conference call in November 2015, the company said.
INTERNET
Baidu to expand in the US
Baidu Inc (百度) is to double its footprint in Silicon Valley with a second research and development facility, seeking to gain an edge in artificial intelligence technology. China’s largest search engine provider is to add 150 employees, it said in a statement on Friday. Baidu has about 200 people at its existing site in Sunnyvale, California, with about 1,300 engineers working on the technology in China and the US.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San