Singapore

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) has won the "Best Credit Card Initiative in Asia" category at the Asian Banking and Finance Retail Banking 2009 Awards Ceremony, held in Singapore on January 2, 2009. This prestigious award recognises RBS’s Switch Platinum Card for its innovative proposition and offering of unparallel financial value and convenience to cardholders.

UBS announced today it has appointed Timothy Chia as Vice Chairman of UBS Investment Bank in Asia. Timothy Chia, Deputy Chairman and Group Chief Executive of SGX-listed Hup Soon Global Corp., has been appointed Vice Chairman of UBS Investment Bank. His primary focus will be overseeing significant client relationships, major transactions and important strategic initiatives in the Asian region.

Downgrading 2009 real GDP forecast to -3.8%:Amidst severe headwinds from the rest of the world, we now see a deeper recession for the Hong Kong economy this year, with real GDP contracting by 3.8 percent (revised down from -1.2 percent), with negative growth sustaining for five quarters in both YoY and QoQ terms, in line with our latest downgrade on China. The latest cuts are driven primarily by further weakening in external demand, which is expected to slash merchandise trade flows by more than 10 percent and take Hong Kong’s service exports, a key growth pillar, into negative growth for the first time since 1998. The recovery in 2010 is expected to be tepid at best; we forecast 2.5-percent growth.

The current financial turbulence and threat of a global recession will result in an increase in white collar crime as well as significant changes in how fraudsters operate, according to the newly released Kroll Global Fraud Report. Kroll expects to see an increase in full-scale fraud investigations involving legal disputes, regulatory action and prosecution in 2009 as whistleblowing also becomes more common.

SuperDerivatives (SD), the derivatives benchmark, today announced that its credit derivatives platform, SD-CD, has been chosen by Standard & Poor’s to power its new Credit Default Swap (CDS) Indices, launched today.

Reflecting its ongoing commitment to Japan, UBS has appointed Toshiharu Kojima as Country Head Japan, and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of UBS Securities Japan (UBSSJ), effective 21 January 2009.

Policy traction over the past year has more resembled the pain and trauma of the medical treatment called traction, rather than the traction of a car’s wheels getting a grip on an icy road! In Asia in 2009, a key differentiator will be successful policy traction. We believe that we are in the midst of the most aggressive policy stimulus in Asia on record. The success of this stimulus, however, will depend on the traction it achieves in a context of record global headwinds. Why Has Policy So Far Failed in Asia? Asia Only Started to Ease 4 Months Ago Whilst the Fed began to ease policy in Sep-07, the first material easing of policy in Asia was a year later! This reflected the inflation threat posed by the record commodity boom, which only peaked in July-08. In addition, until the collapse of Lehman Brothers in mid-September, the economic impact of the US slowdown on Asia had appeared limited.

Nomura, the pre-eminent global investment bank, announced the appointment of six senior bankers to its Non-Japan Asia investment banking team, emphasising the firm's commitment to expanding its coverage and strengthening its offering to clients in the region.

First take Singapore's GDP contracted 3.7 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter, after a revised 0.2 percent contraction in the third. On an quarter-on-quarter annualised rate, GDP was 16.9 percent lower. The numbers are much worse than expected. Growth for 2008 in total was 1.2 percent year-on-year.

Barack Obama's rhetoric during the transition period since his election has made it clear that his new administration will take an active approach to address the many current economic issues.

Hong Kong-based asset management firm, Enhanced Investment Products Ltd. (EIP) announces strong results despite the current economic climate demonstrating that its market neutral Overlay Fund offers absolute returns. Year-end results show the EIP Overlay fund is up 17.31 percent, in comparison to the MSCI Emerging Asia Index which was down -54.09 percent (January to December 2008).

Hong Kong and Singapore may soon come under increased scrutiny from the US, if incoming President Barack Obama follows through with his pledge to crack down on abusive “tax havens” which “peddle secrecy” and “cloak tax evasion and other misconduct,” according to Withers, the world's leading law firm for high net worth individuals.

China – 4Q08 GDP (Jan 22): China will release 4Q08 GDP report coupled with a batch of macro indicators. The significant deceleration observed across almost all economic indicators probably slashed overall headline growth in 4Q to around 6.3 percent (vs. +9 percent in 3Q), the lowest since late 1990s. This implies 9 percent growth for full year 2008, down from the recently revised 13 percent in 2007 and below 10 percent for the first time in six years. On the nflation front, we believe that disinflation continued in December across both upstream and downstream. Whilst industrial output growth will likely decline further on destocking ahead of global slump and shipment contraction; retail sales and fixed investment growth probably remained relatively resilient.

Singapore bond markets closed the year on a strong note and turned in positive performance for December. The UOB Singapore Government Bond All Index gained 1.33 percent for the month. Singapore government bonds benefited from a worsening in the global recession and a subsequent rally in global bonds, and yields reached new lows for the year. As economic data continued to weaken, officials acknowledged the worsening domestic economic outlook. This acknowledgment supported investors’ bias for the relative safety of bonds. However, as the market adjusted for new supply and some profit taking, some of the gains were pared back. Although the market remained flushed with liquidity as overnight interbank rates eased by an additional 12.5 basis points (bps), investors’ desire for higher yields amid falling inflation promoted a further flattening of the yield curve. The 2/10 year Singapore Government Securities (SGS) yield curve compressed by a further 20 bps in December, while 2-, 5- , 10- and 20-year SGS benchmark yields were lower by 2, 15, 28 and 33 bps respectively.

Nomura Asset Management, a leading Japan-based investment manager, and the Board of Directors of Nomura Partners Funds, Inc., formerly known as The Japan Fund, Inc., the United States' oldest Japanese equity mutual fund, announced today the launch of Nomura Partners Funds, Inc. (the “Funds”), a family of mutual funds with an Asian and global focus. The Funds will give investors the ability to choose from a variety of Asian and global funds, providing them with “The World from Asia.” Nomura Asset Management U.S.A. Inc. will be the investment advisor for the Funds and each Fund will be managed by a team of investment specialists with one overriding goal: competitive performance.

As the credit crunch impacts markets globally and the US and Europe experience economic slowdown, Baring Asset Management (Barings) argues there is room for positive surprises in global markets in 2009. At a press conference held on January 14 in the Landmark, Central, Khiem Do, Head of Asian Multi-Asset and Henry Chan, Head of Asian Equities at Barings, highlighted that investors should look to cheap and under owned growth assets for returns in 2009.