BANKING
Deutsche fined millions
The German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) fined Deutsche Bank AG 8.66 million euros (US$9.77 million) over its handling of submissions for EURIBOR, a reference rate at the heart of a scandal that rocked the industry. The lender temporarily did not have effective systems and controls for contributions to the benchmark, BaFin said in a statement. While BaFin said Deutsche Bank has a right to appeal, the company said in a statement that it accepts the fine to create “legal certainty.” “It remains a top priority for us to identify and address potential weaknesses in our control processes,” Deutsche Bank said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Consumers face tough year
Households are heading into the “year of the squeeze” as surging energy bills and faster inflation eat into incomes, the Resolution Foundation think tank said. In a grim report days before the New Year holiday, it said real wages would effectively stagnate next year, rising just 0.1 percent. In three years, they would be ￡740 (US$993) a year lower than if the pre-COVID-19 wage trend had continued. Inflation has already breached 5 percent and might hit 6 percent early next year, the highest in three decades. In addition to energy prices, consumers would have to deal with tax increases in April.
AUTOMAKERS
Zeekr to make Waymo EVs
China’s Geely Holding Group Co (吉利控股集團) said its premium electric mobility brand, Zeekr, would make electric vehicles (EVs) for Waymo, Alphabet Inc’s self-driving unit, to be deployed as fully autonomous ride-hailing vehicles across the US. The vehicles would be designed and developed at Zeekr’s facility in Sweden, and later integrated with Waymo’s self-driving technology, Geely said on Tuesday. Waymo said it would introduce the vehicles to US roads “in the years to come.” Waymo is the first and only fully driverless taxi service in the US. It has driven thousands of people since launching the service a year ago in Phoenix, Arizona.
E-COMMERCE
JD.com ups buyback target
JD.com Inc (京東) is boosting its share buyback plan by 50 percent, the latest in a slew of tech firms to repurchase stock after China’s regulatory crackdown over the past year sparked a sell-off. The country’s No. 2 online retailer would set aside US$3 billion for the buyback program, which would be extended until March 2024, it said in a filing yesterday. That is up from the US$2 billion it had targeted under the plan originally adopted in March last year. JD yesterday unveiled a five-year green loan facility of US$2 billion, its first such financing for new and existing green projects.
RIDE-HAILING
Didi plans HK listing
China’s ride-hailing giant Didi Global Inc (滴滴) plans to use a mechanism that would allow it to list shares in Hong Kong without raising capital or issuing new stock as it seeks to delist from New York, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The Hong Kong mechanism, known as “listing by introduction,” would allow owners of Didi’s US shares to transfer them to the territory’s bourse gradually, the people said. They declined to be identified as the plan was not yet public. Didi aims to file for the Hong Kong listing by the end of April and list by June, one of the people said.
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
An earnings report from semiconductor giant and artificial intelligence (AI) bellwether Nvidia Corp takes center stage for Wall Street this week, as stocks hit a speed bump of worries over US federal deficits driving up Treasury yields. US equities pulled back last week after a torrid rally, as investors turned their attention to tax and spending legislation poised to swell the US government’s US$36 trillion in debt. Long-dated US Treasury yields rose amid the fiscal worries, with the 30-year yield topping 5 percent and hitting its highest level since late 2023. Stocks were dealt another blow on Friday when US President Donald
UNCERTAINTY: Investors remain worried that trade negotiations with Washington could go poorly, given Trump’s inconsistency on tariffs in his second term, experts said The consumer confidence index this month fell for a ninth consecutive month to its lowest level in 13 months, as global trade uncertainties and tariff risks cloud Taiwan’s economic outlook, a survey released yesterday by National Central University found. The biggest decline came from the timing for stock investments, which plunged 11.82 points to 26.82, underscoring bleak investor confidence, it said. “Although the TAIEX reclaimed the 21,000-point mark after the US and China agreed to bury the hatchet for 90 days, investors remain worried that the situation would turn sour later,” said Dachrahn Wu (吳大任), director of the university’s Research Center for
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