ICBC appointed as yuan clearing bank in Singapore

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SINGAPORE — The People’s Bank of China has designated the Singapore branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) as the yuan-clearing bank in Singapore, it said on Friday.

Singapore is also the first regional financial center outside China to have a yuan clearing bank. In China’s Hong Kong and Taiwan, the local units of the Bank of China had been picked to clear yuan transactions in 2004 and 2012, respectively.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore said it welcomes the announcement on Friday, which marks a key milestone in the growing financial cooperation between the two countries.

It “will enable Singapore’s financial center to play a useful role in facilitating greater use of the RMB for trade, investment and other economic activities in the region,” said Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

The much-anticipated announcement came four months after the local units of the Bank of China and the ICBC were both granted qualifying full bank licenses in Singapore, which allow them to open up to 25 outlets in the city state.

China and Singapore signed exchanges of letters on cooperation in the banking industries in July last year under the framework of the bilateral Free Trade Agreements, agreeing for two Chinese banks to be given qualifying full bank licenses in Singapore and one of them to be designated as a yuan clearing bank later.

Singapore is among the several cities, including London and Luxemburg, to pursue offshore yuan clearing banks.

“Singapore wants a yuan clearing bank firstly because it wants to grow its offshore yuan capital market. With a local yuan clearing bank, it will be more efficient for the transactions to be cleared, and it will be better for the growth of the offshore- yuan capital market and better for its status as a regional offshore yuan hub,” said Tommy Xie, economist at the OCBC Bank.

The Singapore Exchange said last year it was prepared for the listing of yuan-denominated securities.

The demand for yuan in cross-border trade settlement and yuan- denominated investment products in Singapore has been strong, and several companies already issued yuan-denominated bonds.

Ong Chong Tee, deputy managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, said at a seminar in June last year that the pool of yuan deposits in Singapore was estimated to be around 60 billion yuan ($9.6 billion).

Statistics on the total amount of yuan-denominated cross-border trade settlement were not available, but the Singapore branch of the Bank of China said it settled over 60 billion yuan of RMB- denominated cross-border trade in 2011, while the Singapore unit of ICBC said it settled close to 50 billion yuan of RMB- denominated cross-border trade. Both banks said the numbers surged by about 50 percent in the first half of 2012.

Xie expects Hong Kong to retain its unique status as the most important offshore yuan center given its status as a special administrative region of China. London has an advantage in terms of its time zone, but Singapore still has a very important role to play as a regional center, especially in terms of trade.

“For China to promote the international use of yuan in cross- border transactions and other transactions, it needs more than one yuan-clearing hub, after all,” he said.

ICBC appointed as yuan clearing bank in Singapore

Population plans to be reviewed nearer 2020, says PM

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong delivered an impassioned defence of the Population White Paper yesterday, as Parliament wrapped up one of the most heated debates in recent years.

Speaking before the House passed an amended motion to endorse the Population White Paper with 77 ayes and 13 nays, he said the plans would have to be reviewed closer to 2020, as it was not possible to see so far ahead.

Well before that, he added, the conversation about Singapore’s population challenges would have to continue both in and outside Parliament.

PM Lee made clear that it would have been easier for him to “kick the can down the road” and avoid taking up the thorny issue of population and immigration, but that would have been irresponsible.

Singapore faces a real demographic challenge, which it has to discuss openly and face squarely. He urged Singaporeans not to look at the White Paper as just a document discussing a difficult problem.

“It’s really an affirmation of faith in Singapore’s future, belief that Singapore has a future which is worth building, protecting, striving for,” he said.

The Prime Minister was the last of the more than 70 Members who joined in the debate this week.

While the fireworks that punctuated the first four days were largely missing yesterday, PM Lee made sure the last leg of the debate had its fair share of emotional highs and lows.

At one point when speaking about the meaning and importance of a Singaporean core, PM Lee, eyes reddening, had to pause for a sip of water to gather himself before continuing.

Like several of his ministers, he said that the 6.9 million figure was not a target and has been taken out of context. The future population, he said, actually depends on Singaporeans of tomorrow, and not the Government of today.

“Nobody knows what’s going to happen in 2030. Even in 2020, you cannot be sure… Therefore we cannot decide on a population trajectory beyond 2020. That has to be left to a future government and future Singaporeans to decide,” he said.

His own guess was that it would be somewhere above six million to cater to an ageing baby boomer generation but yet “significantly below” 6.9 million.

Population plans to be reviewed nearer 2020, says PM

Singapore police join Interpol, Italy in fight against football fixing syndicate

SINGAPORE – Singapore’s police are working with Interpol to help Italian authorities investigate an international football match-fixing scandal based in the Asian city.

Europol revealed startling revelations this week about the syndicate trying to fix games across Europe, including World Cup and European Championship qualifiers. It generated more than 8 million euros ($10.8 million) in profit.

An 18-month investigation dubbed ‘Operation VETO’ found 425 match officials, club executives, players and criminals in 15 countries conspiring to fix more than 380 matches.

The identification of the Singaporean syndicate in fixing has resulted in businessman Dan Tan Seet Eng being placed on Italy’s most-wanted list.

“As evidence of alleged match-fixing needs to be further developed in order for our law enforcement agencies to take concrete follow-up actions against the alleged suspects, the Singapore Police Force will send our officers to Interpol to assist in the current investigations and join the global fight against match-fixing and illegal betting in football,” the police said in a statement issued Friday.

“Singapore remains highly committed in the fight against match-fixing, and other trans-national crimes. If evidence of such crimes exist, the police will pursue the case vigorously with a view to bringing the perpetrators to justice.”

Europol’s probe has led to several prosecutions, including 14 people in Germany being convicted and sentenced to 39 years in prison.

Since 2005, Singapore’s Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau has investigated 8 match-fixing cases involving bribery in Singapore, with 11 individuals being charged and convicted in court.

A prominent case in 2007 involved the Liaoning Guangyuan Football Club, which was participating in the Singapore League, where players were found guilty of having received bribes from the general manager of the club to influence the result of the matches.

In 2012, two South Koreans were arrested for trying to fix a Singapore League game. The Singaporean player who was approached by the two South Koreans to fix the game, reported the attempt to his club manager and the authorities.

“We are closely following the news reports which have suggested that Asia is one of the continents where the suspicious matches took place,” said Dato’ Alex Soosay, secretary general of the Asian Football Confederation. “AFC has a zero-tolerance policy towards unethical practices in football and we are determined to fight against any kind of irregularities that include and are not limited to match-fixing, corruption and illegal betting in the game.”

© Copyright 2013

Singapore police join Interpol, Italy in fight against football fixing syndicate