Singapore Financial News

Shortly after President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine early last year, hundreds of aging tankers were snapped up by a cohort of faceless traders, intermediaries and investors to keep Russian oil flowing. By some estimates, the purchases, which added to vessels that were already transporting crude for Venezuela and Iran, created a more than 900-strong dark fleet. Now, the average age of the ships being purchased is declining, according to data from VesselsValue Ltd., a researcher of shipping deals.

Mehrotra and Shantanu Mehrotra of Indian Accent served as part of their nine-course dinner at a pop-up in Singapore recently. It was not held at a restaurant or a hotel, but at a private members’ club, Mandala. The three-week pop up, which was extended to a fourth on popular demand, fed 2,200 diners.

Now, with top economies seeking semi-skilled and skilled professionals to plug labour shortages, offering them extensive benefits and upgrading their standard of living, people's desire to migrate has reached an all-time high. Going by the numbers, Indians continue to chase the American dream with 7,88,284 of them relinquishing their citizenship in 2021, according to a Ministry of External Affairs data.

Shriram Finance, India's second-biggest standalone non-bank lender by advances, plans to raise at least $150 million through a social loan for which HSBC is the sole mandated lead arranger. The pricing of the loan, which has a tenor of three years, would be around 200 basis points above the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR), the UK-based bank told ET. One basis point is 0.01 percentage point.

Ripple, a leading provider of enterprise blockchain and cryptocurrency solutions, has announced a significant milestone for its Singapore subsidiary, Ripple Markets APAC Pte Ltd. The company has obtained in-principle approval for the Major Payments Institution License application from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (<dfn data-info=«The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is Singapore» s central bank. the mission of mas is to promote sustained non-inflationary>MAS). This approval will enable Ripple to offer regulated digital payment token products and services within Singapore, while also expanding the adoption of its crypto-enabled On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service.

By Rae Wee and Alun John

On June 29, Palo Alto-based Inflection AI announced the completion of a $1.3 billion raise led by Microsoft, Reid Hoffman, Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt and Nvidia. The new capital will be partly allocated to building a 22,000-unit Nvidia H100 Tensor GPU cluster, which the company claims is the largest in the world. The GPUs will be used to develop large-scale artificial intelligence models. Developers wrote: 

Swiss private banking giant Julius Baer Group, that began offering Bitcoin and other crypto services to wealthy clients in May last year, is now expanding its crypto presence in Dubai.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has unveiled a comprehensive report introducing a framework for the design of open and interoperable networks for digital assets. The report, titled «Enabling Open & Interoperable Networks,» is a collaborative effort between MAS and subject matter experts from the Bank for International Settlements' Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructure (CPMI), with contributions from various financial institutions [1].

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub published an interim report on Project Mariana, its collaboration with the central banks of France, Singapore and Switzerland, on the use of wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC) in tokenized foreign exchange trading. The project is a proof-of-concept that considers questions relating to credit and settlement risk and interoperability.

Sony continues to make its mark in the emerging technologies space with its recent announcement of a new investment in building a global infrastructure to support Web3. 

On June 26, Japan's financial regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), announced a partnership with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for the joint regulation and pilot testing of cryptocurrency projects in accordance with the latter's "Project Guardian" initiative. The participation will be limited to observer capacity for the FSA in its current phase. Regulators wrote: 

Teneo, the liquidators behind bankrupt hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), are reportedly seeking to recover roughly $1.3 billion in funds from founders Su Zhu and Kyle Davies.

US-based stablecoin issuer Circle is closely monitoring Hong Kong’s crypto policies as the government pushes for a friendly regulatory framework. 

Schroders is participating in the MAS’s Project Guardian initiative to develop a “digital asset ecosystem” in Singapore.

As asset tokenization continues at a rapid pace, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and 11 financial institutions examined infrastructure models to facilitate tokenized asset trading. The key to unlocking the full benefits of the technology is open and interoperable digital asset networks, the MAS said in its Project Guardian report released June 26.

Blockchain Australia’s new CEO Simon Callaghan hopes the Federal Government will take its cues on crypto regulation from the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and Singapore — and definitely not the United States.

As US regulators sued three major crypto exchanges this year, billions of dollars of trading volumes have migrated to Asia. That shift could be poised to accelerate as market makers and exchanges move resources to a region where several jurisdictions have introduced regulatory frameworks and are vying for digital-asset traders. Investors and marketplaces are flocking to Singapore, Japan and South Korea — and more recently to Hong Kong, which this month introduced a new regulatory regime for crypto. Bitcoin trading activity in predominantly Asian hours have risen this year even as they slumped in US and European hours, data compiled by CryptoQuant show. The token accounts for almost half of crypto’s total market value. The resilience in Asian crypto volumes is underpinned by institutional investors who perceive the regulatory environment there as less risky, according to several market participants interviewed by Bloomberg. “With so much regulatory uncertainty in the US, Asia has become an increasingly important hub for digital-asset activity,” said Jonny Caldwell, who focuses on alternative investments including cryptocurrencies as co-head of asset management at Trovio Group. “We are observing a major shift to Asian-based exchanges and venues in the last few months.”

Singapore based cryptocurrency exchange service provider Crypto.com has obtained a virtual asset service provider (VASP) registration from the Bank of Spain. The regulatory approval would allow the exchange to offer a range of crypto-focused services to customers in Spain, a country which has shown a positive crypto stance in recent times.

 

Winklevoss twins’ cryptocurrency exchange Gemini continues to actively expand its services across the world, debuting Ethereum staking in the United Kingdom.