Singapore Financial News

Chinese New Year 2024: The global celebration of Chinese New Year 2024 commenced on February 10 with joy and cultural reverence, marking the advent of the ‘Year of the Dragon’. This cherished festival, deeply rooted in Chinese culture, unites people of Chinese heritage in festivities that symbolize fresh beginnings and familial bonds. The occasion signals the beginning of the lunar calendar, inviting vibrant parades, dragon dances, and feasts amid fireworks and reunion dinners.

Processed food and drinks have internationally been subject to voluntary caps on fat, salt and sugar. Front-of-package labelling has been used to effectively signal health choices, and sin taxes have been deployed to deter consumption. India has a demerit tax on sugary drinks, but is yet to get its manufacturers to cut back on sugar levels prevalent in Europe, the US or even in Singapore.

The UK’s former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Philip Hammond, has denied allegations that he may have been illegally lobbying for crypto company Copper.

I have spent the past three decades working for a major international bank in Singapore and as I look back on my time here, I see that one thing has dominated my life: the fear of losing my job. 

Andy Sieg, the newish head of wealth management at Citigroup, looks a little older than his 56 years. This might be because managing wealth managers is a stressful business, and he oversaw 25,000 of them at Merrill Lynch before joining Citi last September. Or it might be because he is wise. 

Bitcoin (BTC) rose above $46,000 on Friday, hitting its highest level in a month.

BSE on Monday, January 29, ahead of its December quarter earnings. GAIL share price opened nearly 2 per cent higher at ₹168.15 against the previous close of ₹165.40 but soon pared most gains. Around 9:40 am, the stock traded 0.88 per cent up at ₹166.85.

By Florence Tan

By Ankur Banerjee

SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Small Chinese investors are scrambling even harder than foreigners to exit the country's crumbling stock markets, sending premiums on global index funds skyrocketing as they search for exposure to anything but the sputtering domestic economy.

GenAI) and projected to nearly triple spends on this technology to USD 3.4 billion in 2024 across Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, India, and Singapore, according to Infosys Research. While the spending trails North America, APAC's adoption, effectiveness, and growth are among the highest globally, it said. «Companies across Asia-Pacific are quickly ramping up investments in generative AI and entering a higher stage of maturity,» the IT major's research arm, Infosys Knowledge Institute (IKI), said in the research.

Flipkart. The entrepreneur has resigned from the board of the ecommerce company he cofounded in 2007 with Sachin Bansal, sources said. Binny Bansal, who is now based in Singapore, told the board about his resignation earlier this week, citing a conflict with his new venture in the ecommerce sector. Binny Bansal has set up a new ecommerce startup named OppDoor, ET reported on January 2. Targeted at businesses, the software services platform says it will help emerging ecommerce brands expand globally. The IIT- Delhi alumnus also sits on the board of PhonePe, which too has expanded into ecommerce after separation from ecommerce major.

Singapore for molesting a domestic worker in a lift and punching a man with a metal chain wrapped around his fist. Singaram Palianeapan pleaded guilty to a charge of using criminal force to outrage the modesty of a person, and a charge of voluntarily causing hurt with a dangerous weapon. Four other similar charges were considered during sentencing, digital news outlet Today reported on Friday. According to court documents, the domestic worker was buying food at a coffee shop when she was approached by Singaram, who offered her S$2 to buy herself a drink. She accepted the money upon being insisted by Singaram, who followed her as she proceeded to head back to her employer's residence. The two reached the lift lobby of the housing block where the worker was living and she entered the lift even though Singaram did not live there.

By Alex Lawler

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is a real-time payment system designed to enable peer-to-peer inter-bank transfers through a simple two-factor authentication process. India has emerged as one of the fastest-growing ecosystems for fintech innovation and the government and the central bank have been instrumental in driving the globalisation of India's digital payment infrastructure. UPI has made all our lives simple and easy through the convenience of instant payments. But there is more that UPI is bringing to consumers in India.

₹825 crore, in the first big land transaction this year. The company plans to develop a housing project on this land, offering 7.5 million sq ft of saleable area. A key part of this transaction involved DLF settling Ireo’s outstanding loan of ₹825 crore.

An inital $35 million target was exceeded with Azimut Holding, a global asset management group and existing client, as the lead investor.The round pushes Sygnum's valuation up to $900 million, a $100 million uplift from its $90 million Series B in october 2022.Since then, Sygnum's assets under administration have grown to over $4 billion, with a client base of over 1,700 from more than 60 countries. Alongside the increase in valuation, the group continued to grow its global team through the 'crypto winter', now nearing 250 employees.

Bakkt Holdings, crypto trading and custody platform, announced the expansion of its crypto operations in several crypto-friendly international jurisdictions.

real estate developer DLF has acquired 29-acre land in Golf Course Extension Gurgaon for Rs 825 crore with a development potential of 7.5 million sq ft. The developer, who has huge land bank in the region, has done the acquisition after many years. According to the regulatory filing by the company, it has entered into an agreement with Standard Chartered Bank, Singapore Branch, DB International (Asia) Limited, Singapore and Deutsche Investments India Private Limited for purchase of privately placed, listed, secured, non-convertible, redeemable bonds of face value of Rs 600 crore on which the bond issuer has defaulted in repayment of the said bonds including accrued interest thereon.

Sygnum AG, a global digital asset bank, has successfully raised $40 million in a strategic funding round led by Azimut Holding.

Lai Ching-te. Mr Lai’s win marks the third presidential term in a row for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which emphasises Taiwan’s separate, democratic identity. Yet since that victory, mainland propaganda outlets have downplayed its significance and played up the DPP’s poor showing in parliamentary elections held the same day.