Singapore's exposure to US subprime mortgage markets is small and contained, officials said yesterday, but warned that a resulting slowdown in major economies will affect the city-state's growth.
Singapore's central bank is "closely monitoring our financial institutions' exposure to sub-prime and other structured credit markets, at both the domestic and global levels," S. Iswaran, minister of state for trade and industry, said in parliament.
"Our exposure remains small and contained at this stage," Iswaran said.
He added that the central bank remained vigilant and was ready to inject liquidity into the banking system if needed.
Iswaran also said, however, that a loss of confidence and a general credit squeeze resulting from uncertainty in financial markets could impact the trade-dependent country.
"Strong growth in the region and the diversity of our export markets will provide us some buffer, but we are not immune to a slowdown in the major industrial economies," Iswaran said.
Iswaran said Singapore's economic growth forecast of 7 percent to 8 percent this year remained unchanged.
Singapore's local financial institutions do not offer mortgages to subprime customers, but have investments in collateralized debt obligations -- complex bundles of debt repackaged as securities -- 25 percent of which contain US subprime mortgages, Second Minister for Finance Tharman Shanmugaratnam also told lawmakers.
The total investment in CDOs by local banks amount to S$2.6 billion (US$1.71 billion), making up just 1 percent of the banks' capital base, Tharman said.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
BIG BUCKS: Chairman Wei is expected to receive NT$34.12 million on a proposed NT$5 cash dividend plan, while the National Development Fund would get NT$8.27 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday announced that its board of directors approved US$15.25 billion in capital appropriations for long-term expansion to meet growing demand. The funds are to be used for installing advanced technology and packaging capacity, expanding mature and specialty technology, and constructing fabs with facility systems, TSMC said in a statement. The board also approved a proposal to distribute a NT$5 cash dividend per share, based on first-quarter earnings per share of NT$13.94, it said. That surpasses the NT$4.50 dividend for the fourth quarter of last year. TSMC has said that while it is eager
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
RSS