BANKING
Europe in good shape
European banks are in “extremely solid” shape and their situation is not similar to that of some US lenders, Banque de France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau said yesterday, amid fears of a crisis in the sector. The failure of two US lenders has raised fears of contagion to the wider sector, with troubled European banking giant Credit Suisse having to borrow up to US$54 billion from the Swiss central bank. “European banks are not in the same situation as certain American banks for a very simple reason which is that they are not subjected to the same rules,” Villeroy de Galhau told BFM Business television. Basel III rules that were set after the 2008 financial crisis to ensure that banks have adequate capital and liquidity have been “effective,” he said. Four hundred European banking groups are subject to the Basel III requirements compared with only 13 in the US, he said.
SOFTWARE
Microsoft Office goes AI
Microsoft Corp is infusing artificial intelligence (AI) tools into its Office software, including Word, Excel and Outlook. The company on Thursday said the new feature, named Copilot, is a processing engine that would allow users to do things like summarize long e-mails, draft stories in Word and animate slides in PowerPoint. Microsoft spokesperson Jessica Dash said the new Office features are currently only available for 20 enterprise customers. It will roll it out for more enterprise customers over the coming months. Microsoft is marketing the feature as a tool that would allow workers to be more productive by freeing up time they usually spend in their inbox, or allowing them to more easily analyze trends in Excel. The firm is also to add a chat function called Business Chat. It takes commands and carries out actions — such as summarizing an e-mail about a particular project to co-workers — using user data.
AVIATION
Firms look to India for talent
Boeing Co and Airbus SE are increasingly looking to India for highly skilled, low-cost engineers to meet a boom in demand for aircraft and expand their manufacturing presence in the world’s fifth-largest economy. Airbus plans to hire 1,000 people in India this year out of 13,000 globally. Boeing and its suppliers, which already employ about 18,000 workers in the nation, have been growing by about 1,500 staff every year, the US jet manufacturer’s India head Salil Gupte told Bloomberg News in an interview. With about 1.5 million engineering students graduating annually, India is a rich source of talent for planemakers facing record orders from airlines as travel surges again after the COVID-19 pandemic. Boeing can hire an engineer in Bengaluru, India, for 7 percent of the cost of a similar role in Seattle, salary data compiler Glassdoor said.
CHINA
PBOC cuts reserve ratio
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) yesterday said it would cut the amount of cash that banks must hold as reserves to release liquidity and support the economy. The bank said it would cut the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) for all banks, except those that have implemented a 5 percent reserve ratio, by 25 basis points, effective March 27. That follows a reduction of 25 basis points for all banks in December last year. The PBOC has promised to make its policy “precise and forceful” this year to support the economy, keeping liquidity reasonably ample and lowering funding costs for businesses. It said weighted average RRR for financial institutions is 7.6 percent after the latest cut.
PATENTS: MediaTek Inc said it would not comment on ongoing legal cases, but does not expect the legal action by Huawei to affect its business operations Smartphone integrated chips designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) on Friday said that a lawsuit filed by Chinese smartphone brand Huawei Technologies Co (華為) over alleged patent infringements would have little impact on its operations. In an announcement posted on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, MediaTek said that it would not comment on an ongoing legal case. However, the company said that Huawei’s legal action would have little impact on its operations. MediaTek’s statement came after China-based PRIP Research said on Thursday that Huawei filed a lawsuit with a Chinese district court claiming that MediaTek infringed on its patents. The infringement mentioned in the lawsuit likely involved
Taipei is today suspending work, classes and its US$2.4 trillion stock market as Typhoon Gaemi approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Authorities had yesterday issued a warning that the storm could affect people on land and canceled some ship crossings and domestic flights. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) expects its local chipmaking fabs to maintain normal production, the company said in an e-mailed statement. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp said it has activated routine typhoon alert
GROWTH: TSMC increased its projected revenue growth for this year to more than 25 percent, citing stronger-than-expected demand for AI devices and smartphones The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) yesterday raised its forecast for Taiwan’s GDP growth this year from 3.29 percent to 3.85 percent, as exports and private investment recovered faster than it predicted three months ago. The Taipei-based think tank also expects that Taiwan would see a 8.19 percent increase in exports this year, better than the 7.55 percent it projected in April, as US technology giants spent more money on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and development. “There will be more AI servers going forward, but it remains to be seen if the momentum would extend to personal computers, smartphones and
Catastrophic computer outages caused by a software update from one company have once again exposed the dangers of global technological dependence on a handful of players, experts said on Friday. A flawed update sent out by the little-known security firm CrowdStrike Holdings Inc brought airlines, TV stations and myriad other aspects of daily life to a standstill. The outages affected companies or individuals that use CrowdStrike on the Microsoft Inc’s Windows platform. When they applied the update, the incompatible software crashed computers into a frozen state known as the “blue screen of death.” “Today CrowdStrike has become a household name, but not in