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SINGAPORE: Malaysia's second-richest man Quek Leng Chan is weighing options for his stake in Hong Leong Bank, including a merger, two sources with knowledge of the matter said, in a move that could trigger wider consolidation in the sector. Quek, 80, is also exploring the possibility of reducing his stake in the Malaysian lender, said the sources who declined to be named due to the confidential nature of the matter. Conglomerate Hong Leong Financial Group, controlled by Quek, holds a 62 per cent stake in Hong Leong Bank, the country's fourth-largest lender with a market value of US$10 billion, according to Refinitiv data. Hong Leong Bank and Hong Leong Financial did not respond to multiple queries sent by Reuters and there was also no response from Quek to queries sent through the bank....

NEW YORK :The U.S. dollar rose across the board on Monday, driving the euro back below parity, as investors shied away from riskier assets amid growing fears that interest-rate hikes in the United States and Europe, aimed at curbing inflation, would weaken the global economy. Against a basket of currencies, the dollar rose 0.8 per cent to a more than five-week high of 109.02, not far from the two-decade peak of 109.29 touched in mid-July. The greenback has found support in recent sessions as several Federal Reserve officials reiterated an aggressive monetary tightening stance ahead of the Fed's Jackson Hole, Wyoming, symposium this week. The latest of these officials, Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin, on Friday said the "urge" among central bankers was toward faster, front-loaded ra...

A joint battery venture of Toyota Motor Corp and Panasonic Corp will buy lithium from ioneer Ltd's Rhyolite Ridge mining project and use the metal to build electric vehicle batteries in the United States. The binding supply deal, announced on Sunday, is the second in less than a month for ioneer and a strong vote of confidence in a project that is racing to be the first new U.S. source of the battery metal in decades. Under the terms of the deal, ioneer will supply 4,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate annually for five years to Prime Planet Energy & Solutions (PPES), which was formed by Toyota and Panasonic in 2020 to better compete with battery market leader Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL). Supplies are slated to begin in 2025, a timeline that depends in part on ioneer obtai...

China has introduced rules that aim to govern how technology platforms use recommendation algorithms. It is part of a broader push from Beijing to more closely regulate China's domestic technology sector. It comes after China brought in a law in March governing the way tech firms use recommendation algorithms . The rules include allowing users to opt out of recommendation algorithms, as well as requiring companies to obtain a license to provide news services. The Cyberspace Administration of China, one of the country's most powerful regulators, released a list on Friday of 30 algorithms alongside a brief description of their purpose from companies including e-commerce firm Alibaba and gaming giant Tencent. Chinese technology giants shared details of their prized algorithms with the coun...

LONDON :The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) includes the "largest investment ever in combating the existential crisis of climate change", according to President Joe Biden, who will sign the bill into law later on Tuesday. Around $369 billion of federal funds will flow into climate change and energy security, boosting domestic capacity to produce wind turbines, solar panels and electric vehicles. However, the green investment comes with a metallic sting in the tail. The IRA extends and expands the existing electric vehicle (EV) subsidy of up to $7,500 but conditions the tax credit on the sourcing of the mineral content of the battery. At least 40 per cent of the critical metals in the battery - lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese - must come from the United States or a Free Trade Agreem...

SINGAPORE: A youth told seven friends that he had made profits from trading cryptocurrency, convincing them to invest about S$332,000 through him. Instead of investing, he used the money to buy items in online games, which he sold for profit. He then paid back about S$82,000 to his friends. The youth, now 20, on Tuesday (Aug 16) pleaded guilty to three charges of cheating. Another four similar charges will be considered when he returns for sentencing next week. The youth cannot be named as he was under 18 when he committed the offences and is protected under the Children and Young Persons Act. Sometime before 2017, the youth discovered that he was able to profit from buying and selling in-game items from games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Around November 2017, when the yout...

SHANGHAI: A few cities in China's tourism hub Hainan extended lockdowns on Friday (Aug 12), with some of the measures expected to last through the weekend, while Lhasa in Tibet also tightened restrictions, among the latest curbs to contain COVID-19 clusters in the country. Under the "dynamic COVID zero" policy that aims at quickly stopping each outbreak from spreading, local governments have imposed shorter lockdowns where people were barred from unnecessary movements for a few days or weeks until clusters were contained within narrower areas. Such lockdowns were less painful than the two-month virus battle fought by Shanghai in the spring, but the growing spread of Omicron across China may lead to more cities made subject to such measures along with the potential disruption to local bus...

SINGAPORE: Activist Gilbert Goh Keow Wah was on Friday (Aug 19) fined S$3,200 for protesting outside the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) building without a permit and refusing to sign a police statement. He was convicted of the offences on Jul 26 this year after claiming trial for the two charges he faced. He was fined S$2,000 for protesting without a permit and S$1,200 for refusing to sign the police statement. He will pay the S$2,000 fine but go to jail for three days in default of the S$1,200 fine, his lawyer Lim Tean said in court. On May 1, 2021, Goh held up a placard outside the ICA building that read: "Please ban all flights from India we are not racist! Just being cautious". This took place soon after the Government stopped entry for all long-term pass holders and s...

Select’s editorial team works independently to review financial products and write articles we think our readers will find useful. We earn a commission from affiliate partners on many offers, but not all offers on Select are from affiliate partners. If the last couple years have taught us one thing about managing money, it's that having some savings set aside is crucial. Despite the significance of having savings, however, research shows that 45% of Americans have less than $1,000 saved — and in an emergency situation, $1,000 may very well not be sufficient. To ensure you have an adequate amount to cover a worst-case scenario, stashing away a portion of every paycheck is key. Financial security set aside, there are many other benefits that savings can provide. Interest rates are on the ri...

SINGAPORE : China's refined fuel exports are likely to sink in 2022 to the lowest in seven years as the country seeks to maintain ample domestic supplies while refinery output posts a rare decline. Regional rivals like India and South Korea are the probable primary beneficiaries of China's export cuts, which allow them to step up to fill shortages in Europe and elsewhere after the Ukraine crisis strained global fuel markets. HOW DOES CHINA'S QUOTA SYSTEM WORK? Beijing manages exports of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel under a quota system, issuing several batches of allocations over a year and viewing product shipments to global markets as a tool to manage domestic supply and demand balances. Most quotas go to state oil groups, including China National Petroleum Corp, China Petrochemical...