Finance

Philippines eyes rules for coin offerings as Bitcoin use surges

The Philippines is looking at regulating so-called initial coin offerings, as the use of cryptocurrencies gains ground in the Southeast Asian nation.Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Nestor Espenilla said the central bank is in talks with the nation’s Securities and Exchange Commission on ways to oversee ICOs, in which companies raise funds through the sale of digital tokens.

4 December 2017
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Singapore’s stocks haven’t lured this much cash in a decade

Singapore’s stock market is finally getting some love again.With almost two months of the year to run, the Straits Times Index has already notched up its best annual performance since 2012 amid an economic recovery and a stronger currency.The city-state’s equity funds received some two billion dollars in 10 straight months of inflows, the most annually since 2007, according to data from asset allocation tracking company EPFR Global.

10 November 2017
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Startup funding exploding in Southeast Asia

It’s no secret that Southeast Asia has become a hotbed for tech startups. Since 2012, there have been a number of tech companies that have become household names and changed the lives of people in Southeast Asia.

31 October 2017
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Indonesia's economy may beat expectations, finance minister says

Indonesia’s finance minister said Southeast Asia’s biggest economy could expand at a faster pace next year than initially forecast.Economic growth may potentially be boosted by a pickup in investment in 2018, Sri Mulyani Indrawati said in an interview in Jakarta Friday.

30 October 2017
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Singapore Exchange chief bullish on bourse's Aramco IPO chances

Singapore Exchange’s chief executive officer said his company is still in the running to win a listing of the shares of oil giant Aramco, in what could be the world’s biggest initial public offering.“We’re as good as any other exchange,” Loh Boon Chye said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

27 October 2017
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OCBC's profit rose 12% on lending, wealth and insurance

Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp., Southeast Asia’s second-largest lender, reported higher third-quarter profit on increased revenue from its lending, wealth management and life-insurance businesses.Net income rose 12 percent to S$1.06 billion (780 million dollars) in the three months ended September 30, the Singaporean bank said in a filing on Thursday.

26 October 2017
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Jokowi roots for private investment in Indonesia

Indonesia will turn to private investors for the hundreds of billions of dollars in investment needed to develop the archipelago’s infrastructure and natural resources, President Joko Widodo said, brushing off claims he was increasingly becoming an economic nationalist.All major projects will be offered to the private sector, Widodo, also known as Jokowi, told Bloomberg Television’s Haslinda Amin on Saturday in an interview on a hilltop overlooking the picturesque Lake Toba.

17 October 2017
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Bank Mandiri cautioned Indonesia from more rate cuts

Indonesia’s central bank should avoid cutting interest rates further because borrowing costs are at an appropriate level even as loan growth remains subdued, according to the chief of the country’s biggest lender.The current benchmark rate of 4.25 percent is “quite optimal,” Bank Mandiri President Director Kartika Wirjoatmodjo said in an interview on September 28. “Overall liquidity is much better” and “is not an issue anymore,” he said.

3 October 2017
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Singapore cryptocurrency firms facing bank account closures

Singapore banks have closed accounts of several companies which specialise in providing cryptocurrency and payments services, according to two local bodies which represent financial-technology firms.Noting that cryptocurrency firms have had similar problems with their banks in other countries, the head of Singapore’s Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Industry Association, or Access, asked the government to step in.“From our analysis, it appears to be common among leading FinTech hubs,” Access Cha

26 September 2017
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Thailand's emergence as bond-flow magnet in charts

Its sovereign bonds don’t yield much more than US Treasuries, they cost less to insure than Spanish notes and its currency is more stable than China’s managed yuan.In a sign of how the flood of money into emerging markets is upending conventional wisdom, military-run Thailand with a credit rating just three levels above junk at Moody’s Investors Service has become a favoured low-yielding destination for bond investors.A current-account surplus that’s forecast to be around 10 percent of gross

12 September 2017
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Philippine markets shut as floods hit capital

Philippine financial markets were closed on Tuesday along with government offices and schools as heavy overnight rains flooded parts of the capital Manila and nearby provinces.Currency, stocks and bonds trading were suspended after the office of President Rodrigo Duterte halted work in government offices, BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) Governor Nestor Espenilla said.

12 September 2017
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Indonesian bank rally imperilled by sluggish lending

The rally in Indonesian bank stocks may be nearing an end amid sluggish credit growth and tougher regulations for loan quality assessments.Equity analysts are now downgrading banking stocks after the Jakarta Finance Index rallied 21 percent this year – more than double that of the main gauge – as they expect nonperforming loans in the 527 billion dollars industry to creep up again.

8 September 2017
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