■ BANKING
Morgan Stanley buys stake
US banking giant Morgan Stanley has completed a deal to buy a 19.9 percent stake in a medium-sized Chinese trust bank based in Hangzhou, the two companies said yesterday. The purchase of Hangzhou Industrial and Commercial Trust (杭州工商信託投資) company is part of Morgan Stanley’s efforts to tap into China’s growing financial market, a joint statement said. “The investment further demonstrates Morgan Stanley’s willingness and determination to expand its business in the China market,” Sun Wei, chief executive of Morgan Stanley China, was quoted as saying in the statement. The official Shanghai Securities News reported the purchase cost at about 200 million yuan (US$29.3 million), citing senior company officials.
■ SOUTH KOREA
Pyramid scheme busted
Police said yesterday they had busted South Korea’s biggest-ever “pyramid” financial scam involving nearly US$2.6 billion collected from tens of thousands of investors. They said they were hunting 14 swindlers, including Cho Hee-pal, who is accused of raising about 3.9 trillion won (US$2.6 billion) from more than 30,000 investors. Cho, 51, established a company called BMC in 2004 to lease medical devices to hospitals, bathhouses and beauty salons and recruited investors the way multi-level merchandising firms do. Police said Cho’s company lured investors, mostly middle-aged or elderly women with scant financial knowledge, with the promise of high returns. Many reinvested their dividends in the company.
■ BANKING
Norinchukin to raise capital
Norinchukin Bank, the de facto central bank for Japan’s farm and fishery cooperatives, plans a huge US$10.5 billion capital hike to shore up its finances, a report said yesterday. The bank is expected to boost its capital base by more than ¥1 trillion (US$10.5 billion) by March, the Nikkei Shimbun reported, citing unnamed sources. It would be the biggest capital hike yet by a Japanese bank during the current financial crisis. Norinchukin said this month it had booked a loss of about ¥100 billion in the first half of this fiscal year on its securities holdings due to recent market turmoil.
■ AUSTRALIA
Rudd warns of deficit
The Australian government is prepared to see a huge budget surplus run into deficit as it fights the fall-out from the global financial crisis, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said yesterday. The surplus of A$21.7 billion (US$14 billion) forecast in May’s budget was slashed earlier this month by three-quarters to A$5.4 billion as the government warned the crisis would cut tax receipts, growth and jobs. But Rudd’s comments marked the first time he had acknowledged that the government was prepared to run the budget into deficit.
■ COMPUTERS
IBM denies layoff report
International Business Machines Corp (IBM), the world’s largest provider of computer services, denied reports it would cut 1,000 jobs at its Japan unit by the end of the year to offset declining sales. “There is no truth to the reports; we don’t have a specific target for job cuts,” Kazuhiko Suyama, a spokesman at IBM Japan Ltd, said by telephone yesterday. “Rather than reducing the number of unskilled employees, we have a plan to upgrade their skills.” IBM’s Japan unit plans to cut 1,000 jobs, or 6 percent of its workforce, the Nikkei English News reported yesterday, without saying where it obtained the information.
QUIET START: Nearly a week after applications opened, agencies did not announce or promote the program, nor did they explain how it differed from other visitor visas Taiwan has launched a six-month “digital nomad visitor visa” program for foreign nationals from its list of visa-exempt countries who meet financial eligibility criteria and provide proof of work contracts. To apply, foreign nationals must either provide proof that they have obtained a digital nomad visa issued by another country or demonstrate earnings based on age brackets, the Bureau of Consular Affairs said. Applicants aged 20 to 29 must show they earned an annual salary of at least US$20,000 or its equivalent in one of the past two years, while those aged 30 or older must provide proof they earned US$40,000 in
AIR DEFENSE: The Norwegian missile system has proved highly effective in Ukraine in its war against Russia, and the US has recommended it for Taiwan, an expert said The Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) Taiwan ordered from the US would be installed in strategically important positions in Taipei and New Taipei City to guard the region, the Ministry of National Defense said in statement yesterday. The air defense system would be deployed in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) and New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水), the ministry said, adding that the systems could be delivered as soon as the end of this year. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency has previously said that three NASAMS would be sold to Taiwan. The weapons are part of the 17th US arms sale to
SERIOUS ALLEGATIONS: The suspects formed spy networks and paramilitary groups to kill government officials during a possible Chinese invasion, prosecutors said Prosecutors have indicted seven retired military officers, members of the Rehabilitation Alliance Party, for allegedly obtaining funds from China, and forming paramilitary groups and assassination squads in Taiwan to collaborate with Chinese troops in a possible war. The suspects contravened the National Security Act (國家安全法) by taking photos and drawing maps of key radar stations, missile installations and the American Institute in Taiwan’s headquarters in Taipei, prosecutors said. They allegedly prepared to collaborate with China during a possible invasion of Taiwan, prosecutors said. Retired military officer Chu Hung-i (屈宏義), 62, a Republic of China Army Academy graduate, went to China
UNITY MESSAGE: Rather than focusing on what Trump said on the campaign trail about Taiwan, Taipei should be willing to engage with the US, Pompeo said Taiwan plays a key role in Washington’s model of deterrence against China, former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said in a speech in Taipei yesterday. During US president-elect Donald Trump’s first term, “we had developed what we believe was a pretty effective model of deterrence against adversaries who wanted to undermine the set of rules and values that the people of Taiwan and the people of the US hold dear,” Pompeo said at a forum organized by the Formosa Republican Association. “Succeeding in continuing to build this model will not solely rest at the feet of president Trump and his team,
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