BANKING
Swedbank vows scrutiny
Swedbank AB chief executive officer Jens Henriksson yesterday pledged to conclude an internal probe into alleged money laundering at the Swedish lender by early next year, and said it was unaware of any breaches of US sanctions after national broadcaster SVT alleged such a lapse. Earlier in the day, SVT reported that Swedbank might have violated US sanctions against Russia, citing an unidentified Wall Street source.
TECHNOLOGY
Google to read news reports
Google on Tuesday said its digital assistant would serve as a “news host” on its connected devices to deliver stories from a variety of its media partners. The feature called Your News Update would be activated by asking the Google Assistant to read the news. The artificial intelligence program would deliver “a mix of short news stories chosen in that moment based on your interests, location, user history and preferences, as well as the top news stories out there,” Google product manager Liz Gannes said in a blog post.
CHIPMAKERS
Qualcomm releases forecast
Qualcomm Inc on Tuesday said it expects global smartphone makers to ship 450 million 5G handsets in 2021 and another 750 million in 2022. The world’s largest supplier of mobile phone chips said that 5G adoption would be faster than 4G due to the timing of commercialization of the technology in China and availability of chipsets across different price tiers. Going by Qualcomm’s previous forecast of a range of 175 million to 225 million 5G devices for next year, the 2021 forecast suggests 125 percent growth from the midpoint of the outlook for next year.
SOUTH AFRICA
Inflation slows down
The annual inflation rate last month dropped more than forecast to the lowest in almost nine years, providing some room for the central bank to ease policy. Consumer price growth slowed to 3.7 percent, compared with 4.1 percent in September, Pretoria-based Statistics South Africa said in a statement yesterday. The latest print marks 31 consecutive months in which inflation has remained within the central bank’s target band of 3 to 6 percent.
ARGENTINA
President vows to pay debts
President-elect Alberto Fernandez on Tuesday said that he would make good on the nation’s debt payments, but without new austerity measures, because people in the country are already hard-pressed financially. “We cannot make more fiscal adjustments, because the situation is enormously complicated,” Fernandez, a center-left Peronist, said in a statement after speaking with IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva. The IMF last year granted the country a US$57 billion fund to halt a devastating currency skid.
BANKING
Citigroup tops regional list
Citigroup Inc this year ranked the No. 1 fixed-income bank by market share for the Asia-Pacific region excluding Japan, according to a Greenwich Associates survey of debt market professionals that focuses on the secondary market. HSBC Holdings PLC ranked second and JPMorgan Chase & Co, Deutsche Bank AG and UBS Group AG tied at third. The fixed-income rankings include services related to credit, rates, Asia bonds denominated in US dollars, euro and yen and developed market government bonds.
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
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
‘IMMENSE SWAY’: The top 50 companies, based on market cap, shape everything from technology to consumer trends, advisory firm Visual Capitalist said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) was ranked the 10th-most valuable company globally this year, market information advisory firm Visual Capitalist said. TSMC sat on a market cap of about US$915 billion as of Monday last week, making it the 10th-most valuable company in the world and No. 1 in Asia, the publisher said in its “50 Most Valuable Companies in the World” list. Visual Capitalist described TSMC as the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry operator that rolls out chips for major tech names such as US consumer electronics brand Apple Inc, and artificial intelligence (AI) chip designers Nvidia Corp and Advanced
Pegatron Corp (和碩), an iPhone assembler for Apple Inc, is to spend NT$5.64 billion (US$186.82 million) to acquire HTC Corp’s (宏達電) factories in Taoyuan and invest NT$578.57 million in its India subsidiary to expand manufacturing capacity, after its board approved the plans on Wednesday. The Taoyuan factories would expand production of consumer electronics, and communication and computing devices, while the India investment would boost production of communications devices and possibly automotive electronics later, a Pegatron official told the Taipei Times by telephone yesterday. Pegatron expects to complete the Taoyuan factory transaction in the third quarter, said the official, who declined to be
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