Category: Business & Economy
Manulife US Reit to sell Phipps Tower to sponsor
SINGAPORE – Manulife US Real Estate Investment Trust (Manulife US Reit) has entered into a letter of intent to sell Phipps Tower in Atlanta, Georgia, to its sponsor The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company. The purchase consideration should be no more than the average of two independent valuations commissioned by the Reit’s manager and its trustee, DBS Trustee. On Wednesday, the…
Apple says it has struck a multi-billion dollar deal with chipmaker Broadcom to use more US-made parts
Under the multi-year agreement, the two US companies will develop components for 5G devices that will be designed and manufactured in America. Apple says the deal is part of a plan it announced in 2021 to invest $430bn (£346bn) in the US economy. The move comes as a trade row centred on the technology industry intensifies between Washington and Beijing….
Financial institutions in Singapore required to combat higher money laundering risks from wealthy clients: MAS
SINGAPORE – Financial institutions are required to alert the police and the financial regulator if they suspect that a transaction could be related to a crime, although there is no threshold set for when they must flag these activities. They are also required to step up their measures to manage the higher risks of money laundering and terrorism financing posed…
Credit Suisse AT1 bonds: Swiss court receives 230 claims against Swiss regulator
ZURICH – Switzerland’s Federal Administrative Court has received 230 claims against the country’s financial regulator Finma after it wrote off the value of Credit Suisse’s AT1 bonds, the court said on Tuesday. The claims related to 2,500 individual parties, a court spokesman told Reuters. The court in the north-eastern Swiss city of St Gallen, declined to say whether the time…
Wells Fargo to Pay $1 Billion to Settle Pension-Led Lawsuit
Wells Fargo has agreed to pay $1 billion to settle a pension fund-led lawsuit that accused the bank of defrauding shareholders by misleading them over the progress it was making to rectify a slew of scandals. The Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi, the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Pension & Relief Fund and the state of Rhode Island were among the lead…
First Citizens sues HSBC for hiring away Silicon Valley Bank staff
First Citizens BancShares Inc, which acquired Silicon Valley Bank following its collapse, sued HSBC Holdings PLC on Monday, accusing it of poaching more than 40 of the failed bank’s employees in order to launch its own U.S. venture banking business. The lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court says HSBC violated federal law by hiring away the workers so it…
Meta fined record $1.75 billion for violating EU data privacy rules
LONDON – Meta on Monday was fined a record 1.2 billion euros (S$1.75 billion) and ordered to stop transferring data collected from Facebook users in Europe to the United States, in a major ruling against the social media giant for violating European Union (EU) data protection rules. The penalty, which eclipses a 746 million euro EU fine previously doled out…
Florida sued over new law blocking Chinese citizens, other foreigners from buying property
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A group of Chinese citizens living and working in Florida sued the state Monday over a new law that bans Chinese nationals from purchasing property in large swaths of the state. The law applies to land near military installations and other “critical infrastructure” and also affects citizens of Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, Iran, Russia, and North Korea….
The government can’t seize your data — but it can buy it
Adam Kovacevich is the CEO and founder of a center-left tech industry coalition called Chamber of Progress and has worked at the intersection of tech and politics for 20 years, leading public policy at Google and Lime and serving as a Democratic Hill aide. When the Biden administration proposed new protections earlier this month to prevent law enforcement from demanding…
AusGroup says it is unable to pay debts, applies to wind up
SINGAPORE – AusGroup has applied to the Singapore High Court to wind up the company, saying it is unable to pay debts and that the “purpose of judicial management cannot be achieved”. In a bourse filing on May 19, the company added that it has applied to the court for its discharge from judicial management and to release the joint…
AI-generated content discovered on news sites, content farms and product reviews
NEW YORK – Dozens of fringe news websites, content farms and fake reviewers are using artificial intelligence to create inauthentic content online, according to two reports released on Friday. The misleading AI content included fabricated events, medical advice and celebrity death hoaxes, the reports said, raising fresh concerns that the transformative technology could rapidly reshape the misinformation landscape online. The…
Russia’s international flight connections expanding
Indonesia is launching the flight because “Russia is now looking to the East, so we are also looking towards Russia,” Helmi explained. Also on Friday, the first Russian plane landed in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi after a four-year hiatus. The arrival was met by a small group of anti-Russia protesters at the airport. On Saturday, meanwhile, the first Georgian Airways plane…
Pentagon ‘No Longer Confident’ Syria Drone Strike Killed Al-Qaeda Leader Instead of Farmer
Although it has claimed to be fighting Daesh* and other terrorist groups in Syria since 2014, the US military has never received permission from the Syrian government to operate there. In addition, US forces continue to help occupy the eastern third of the country under the guise of supporting allied Kurdish forces. Having previously claimed that a May 3 airstrike…
France orders arrest of Lebanon central bank chief
French prosecutors have issued an arrest warrant for Lebanon’s Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, Arab News reported on 16 May. The warrant comes after Salameh failed to attend a court hearing in Paris. Prosecutors intended to press preliminary fraud charges, court documents and two sources said. Salameh has attempted to avoid arrest and has failed to show up for court…
Murder plot trial puts Latvia bank system in focus
A businessman is due to appear in court in Latvia on Saturday in a murder plot trial that could shed light on the murky past of its banking system. Mihails Ulmans and his associate, co-defendant Aleksandrs Babenko, are alleged to have paid the killer of insolvency lawyer Martins Bunkus. Mr Bunkus is said to have uncovered evidence of money-laundering at…
G7 stance on China complicated by huge stakes in economic ties, cooperation on global issues
Leaders of the Group of Seven advanced economies are generally united in voicing concern about China. The question is how to translate that worry into action. Over the past two years, President Joe Biden’s administration has sought to reframe the relationship with Beijing and build support among like-minded nations for a strong response to what officials in Washington and some…