Royal Bank of Scotland sells India businesses
POSTED: 10 Aug 2013 8:48 PM
TREND
The Royal Bank of Scotland Group has said it plans to sell some of its Indian assets, including its credit card and mortgage business, to a domestic bank as it disposes of more of its once sprawling empire.
NEW DELHI: The Royal Bank of Scotland Group has said it plans to sell some of its Indian assets, including its credit card and mortgage business, to a domestic bank as it disposes of more of its once sprawling empire.
RBS, now more than 80 per cent owned by the British government following the 2008 global financial crisis, plans to sell its business banking, credit card business and mortgage loan portfolio to India's Ratnakar Bank, the two banks said.
Ratnakar Bank is one of India's smallest commercial banks but has fared well in recent years by selling stock to private equity funds.
The banks gave no value for the deal, which is subject to approval by India's competition regulator, in a joint statement late Friday.
"RBS had built an extremely high quality business in India which is rich in current accounts and it will be our endeavour to ensure we not only maintain the existing customer proposition, but enhance it," Rajeev Ahuja, head of strategy and markets at Ratnakar Bank, said in the statement.
RBS was bailed out by the British government after the financial crisis and has been disposing of non-core assets.
RBS first signed an agreement in 2010 with Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corp to sell its India retail assets but that agreement collapsed late last year.
The latest agreement involves the transfer of some of RBS' employees as well as over 120,000 customers to Ratnakar Bank.
The Edinburgh-based RBS will keep a retail presence in 10 places in India -- including Mumbai, Kolkata, New Delhi, Bangalore and Pune -- but will close 21 other branches.
It will continue to offer financing, risk management, wholesale and investment banking, and wealth management advice to customers.
RBS has shed many investment banking jobs in Britain and in the past year has sold or shut down several other divisions.
The European Union has insisted that RBS sell hundreds of local branches under the terms of its 45-billion-pound (US$70-million) bailout in 2008.
- AFP/nd
- wong chee tat :)
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Japan national debt tops one quadrillion yen
Japan national debt tops one quadrillion yen
POSTED: 09 Aug 2013 6:36 PM
Japan's eye-watering national debt has topped one quadrillion yen, official data showed Friday, a record figure that underlines Tokyo's struggle to curb its huge borrowing.
TOKYO: Japan's eye-watering national debt has topped one quadrillion yen, official data showed Friday, a record figure that underlines Tokyo's struggle to curb its huge borrowing.
The figure supplied by the finance ministry of 1.008 quadrillion yen by the end of June amounts to about $10.42 trillion at current exchange rates.
A quadrillion is one thousand trillion.
Tokyo has the dubious distinction of having, proportionately, the biggest debt pile among industrialised nations, more than twice the size of its economy.
The lion's share of that debt is from long- and short-term Japanese government bonds, as well as other borrowing.
The staggering figure, about 1.7 percent higher than the previous quarter, comes a day after Japan pledged to slash its budget and get spending under control.
Japan has not faced a public debt crisis like the kind seen across the debt-riddled eurozone, largely because most of its low-interest debt is held domestically rather than by international creditors.
But the International Monetary Fund and others have issued warnings about Tokyo's ever-increasing borrowing, after a series of sovereign credit rating downgrades in recent years.
This week the IMF called on Japan to adopt a "credible" fiscal plan to repair its books, including raising sales taxes to generate new revenue.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government is mulling whether to go ahead with a series of sales tax rises that would double the rate to 10 percent by 2015, a key source of new income but one that some fear would stall his economy-boosting plan dubbed "Abenomics".
- AFP/xq
- wong chee tat :)
POSTED: 09 Aug 2013 6:36 PM
Japan's eye-watering national debt has topped one quadrillion yen, official data showed Friday, a record figure that underlines Tokyo's struggle to curb its huge borrowing.
TOKYO: Japan's eye-watering national debt has topped one quadrillion yen, official data showed Friday, a record figure that underlines Tokyo's struggle to curb its huge borrowing.
The figure supplied by the finance ministry of 1.008 quadrillion yen by the end of June amounts to about $10.42 trillion at current exchange rates.
A quadrillion is one thousand trillion.
Tokyo has the dubious distinction of having, proportionately, the biggest debt pile among industrialised nations, more than twice the size of its economy.
The lion's share of that debt is from long- and short-term Japanese government bonds, as well as other borrowing.
The staggering figure, about 1.7 percent higher than the previous quarter, comes a day after Japan pledged to slash its budget and get spending under control.
Japan has not faced a public debt crisis like the kind seen across the debt-riddled eurozone, largely because most of its low-interest debt is held domestically rather than by international creditors.
But the International Monetary Fund and others have issued warnings about Tokyo's ever-increasing borrowing, after a series of sovereign credit rating downgrades in recent years.
This week the IMF called on Japan to adopt a "credible" fiscal plan to repair its books, including raising sales taxes to generate new revenue.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government is mulling whether to go ahead with a series of sales tax rises that would double the rate to 10 percent by 2015, a key source of new income but one that some fear would stall his economy-boosting plan dubbed "Abenomics".
- AFP/xq
- wong chee tat :)
Testing underway before DTL1 opens
Testing underway before DTL1 opens
POSTED: 09 Aug 2013 5:44 PM
Downtown Line Stage 1, which connects Chinatown to Bugis directly, will open by the end of the year. Testing of the train system is underway to ensure smooth travel.
SINGAPORE: Downtown Line Stage 1, which connects Chinatown to Bugis directly, will open by the end of the year.
Testing of the train system is underway to ensure smooth travel.
Basic functions of the train system are tested.
These include emergency call buttons, route map displays, train stopping accuracy as well as the live announcement system.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has to complete about 800 test cases.
So far, about 50% of the tests have been completed.
LTA has moved on from testing the core functions of the trains to scenario testing.
LTA's deputy director (rolling stock and depot equipment), Chia Choon Poh, said: "The team has been conducting tests from the operations control centre down to each individual train for the last eight months to test the various functions of the train while in motion. What we are doing now is the carousel train testing, where we replicate normal train operations."
- CNA/ir
- wong chee tat :)
POSTED: 09 Aug 2013 5:44 PM
Downtown Line Stage 1, which connects Chinatown to Bugis directly, will open by the end of the year. Testing of the train system is underway to ensure smooth travel.
SINGAPORE: Downtown Line Stage 1, which connects Chinatown to Bugis directly, will open by the end of the year.
Testing of the train system is underway to ensure smooth travel.
Basic functions of the train system are tested.
These include emergency call buttons, route map displays, train stopping accuracy as well as the live announcement system.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has to complete about 800 test cases.
So far, about 50% of the tests have been completed.
LTA has moved on from testing the core functions of the trains to scenario testing.
LTA's deputy director (rolling stock and depot equipment), Chia Choon Poh, said: "The team has been conducting tests from the operations control centre down to each individual train for the last eight months to test the various functions of the train while in motion. What we are doing now is the carousel train testing, where we replicate normal train operations."
- CNA/ir
- wong chee tat :)
Australia's central bank lowers growth forecasts
Australia's central bank lowers growth forecasts
POSTED: 09 Aug 2013 12:44 PM
Australia's central bank on Friday scaled back its near-term forecasts for economic growth, saying mining investment was unwinding faster than expected and a pick-up in China was unlikely this year.
SYDNEY: Australia's central bank on Friday scaled back its near-term forecasts for economic growth, saying mining investment was unwinding faster than expected and a pick-up in China was unlikely this year.
The Reserve Bank of Australia said it now expected the resources-driven economy to expand 2.25 per cent in the year to December 31 and 2.5 per cent in the 12 months to June 30, 2014.
It had expected 2.5 per cent and 2.0-3.0 per cent respectively in its May forecasts.
"The slightly weaker outlook than a few months ago reflects, among other things, the assessment that growth in China is now unlikely to pick up much, if at all, in coming quarters," the bank said it its quarterly statement on monetary policy.
The bank said its outlook for mining investment had been revised lower after capital expenditure surveys showed "a significant decline" in resources industry spending and equipment imports amid softening commodity prices, particularly in the coal sector.
"Given this, the expectation is that mining investment will decline somewhat over the next year or so before falling away more noticeably thereafter," the bank said.
The bank slashed its official interest rate to an unprecedented 2.5 per cent this week in a bid to stoke the non-mining areas of Australia's economy as its decade-long Asia led commodities boom unwinds.
It cited growing unemployment as a factor in the cut, after the ruling Labor party's jobless forecast ballooned to 6.25 per cent for this financial year.
July's unemployment level came in at a stable 5.7 per cent on Thursday, but the economy shed 10,200 jobs as Australia confronts a painful transition away from its dependence on mining to other drivers of growth.
The RBA said it had also lowered its employment projections and the jobless rate was "expected to continue its recent upward trend over the next few quarters".
"Consistent with the slowing growth in resource-related activity" the bank said that employment growth had been flat in resource-rich Western Australia since the end of last year and there had been an uptick in joblessness.
The bank also noted that the headline unemployment rate "may not fully capture the extent to which conditions in the labour market have softened".
"Firms may have responded to weaker demand by reducing the hours worked by their staff rather than by reducing the number of employees," it said.
The RBA's inflation forecasts were unchanged from May, at 2.25 per cent for the year ending December 31, and it offered no new clues on further rate cuts.
Both Labor and the conservative opposition are campaigning on economic issues ahead of September 7 national elections.
- AFP/jc
- wong chee tat :)
POSTED: 09 Aug 2013 12:44 PM
Australia's central bank on Friday scaled back its near-term forecasts for economic growth, saying mining investment was unwinding faster than expected and a pick-up in China was unlikely this year.
SYDNEY: Australia's central bank on Friday scaled back its near-term forecasts for economic growth, saying mining investment was unwinding faster than expected and a pick-up in China was unlikely this year.
The Reserve Bank of Australia said it now expected the resources-driven economy to expand 2.25 per cent in the year to December 31 and 2.5 per cent in the 12 months to June 30, 2014.
It had expected 2.5 per cent and 2.0-3.0 per cent respectively in its May forecasts.
"The slightly weaker outlook than a few months ago reflects, among other things, the assessment that growth in China is now unlikely to pick up much, if at all, in coming quarters," the bank said it its quarterly statement on monetary policy.
The bank said its outlook for mining investment had been revised lower after capital expenditure surveys showed "a significant decline" in resources industry spending and equipment imports amid softening commodity prices, particularly in the coal sector.
"Given this, the expectation is that mining investment will decline somewhat over the next year or so before falling away more noticeably thereafter," the bank said.
The bank slashed its official interest rate to an unprecedented 2.5 per cent this week in a bid to stoke the non-mining areas of Australia's economy as its decade-long Asia led commodities boom unwinds.
It cited growing unemployment as a factor in the cut, after the ruling Labor party's jobless forecast ballooned to 6.25 per cent for this financial year.
July's unemployment level came in at a stable 5.7 per cent on Thursday, but the economy shed 10,200 jobs as Australia confronts a painful transition away from its dependence on mining to other drivers of growth.
The RBA said it had also lowered its employment projections and the jobless rate was "expected to continue its recent upward trend over the next few quarters".
"Consistent with the slowing growth in resource-related activity" the bank said that employment growth had been flat in resource-rich Western Australia since the end of last year and there had been an uptick in joblessness.
The bank also noted that the headline unemployment rate "may not fully capture the extent to which conditions in the labour market have softened".
"Firms may have responded to weaker demand by reducing the hours worked by their staff rather than by reducing the number of employees," it said.
The RBA's inflation forecasts were unchanged from May, at 2.25 per cent for the year ending December 31, and it offered no new clues on further rate cuts.
Both Labor and the conservative opposition are campaigning on economic issues ahead of September 7 national elections.
- AFP/jc
- wong chee tat :)
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