Société Générale, one of France’s largest and most respected banks, announced that it had lost $7.2 billion, not because of complex subprime loans, but the old-fashioned way — because a 31-year-old rogue trader made bad bets on stocks and then, in trying to cover up those losses, dug himself deeper into a hole. Société Générale, said an unassuming midlevel employee who made about 100,000 euros ($147,000) a year, managed to evade multiple layers of computer controls and audits for as long as a year, stacking up 4.9 billion euros in losses for the bank. (Source：nytimes.com)


HSBC Investments has launched a HSBC GIF Russia Equity, which is managed by Halbis, the active management business the HSBC Group. The new HSBC GIF Russia Equity fund holds a concentrated portfolio of 20-30 stocks which could include locally-listed Russian equities, American depository receipts and global depository receipts. The majority of assets are invested in large liquid blue chip stocks though up to a third of the portfolio could be invested in mid cap companies. (Source: banking-business-review.com)


Corporate debt issuance in the US has made a lacklustre start to the year, after the slowest December in three years, as the credit squeeze continues to weigh on investor sentiment and market liquidity. So far this month, issuance of investment-grade debt totals $2,500bn, compared with record debt sales of $79,706bn for the whole of January last year, according to Thomson Financial. (Source: ftchinese.com)


Direct investment inflows to Hong Kong rose 33.8% to HK$350 billion (US$44 billion) last year, while direct investment outflow grew 65.2% to $349.4 billion, resulting in a net inflow of HK$600 million, the government of Hong Kong has announced. At the end of last year, the stock of Hong Kong's inward direct investment rose 42.3% from a year earlier, to $5.77 trillion at market value. Its ratio to GDP stood at 391%. Mainland China and BVI accounted for 35.1% and 33.8% respectively. (Source: Tax-News.com)


Chen Deming was appointed commerce minister, replacing Bo Xilai. The appointment was made by the Chinese legislature on December 29. Chen is a vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, the state's top economic planning agency, where he has been responsible for fixed-asset investment and economic planning. Bo is now party secretary of Chongqing municipality. (Source: chinaeconomicreview.com)


Hong Kong has been ranked as the world's freest economy for the 14th consecutive year, followed by Singapore and Ireland, by the Heritage Foundation in the foundation's 2008 Index of Economic Freedom study released on Jan.15. Among the 10 individual areas assessed, Hong Kong ranks first in trade freedom, investment and financial freedom and property rights. Hong Kong also ranks in the top 10 in fiscal freedom, government size, monetary freedom and labor freedom. (Source: chinaview.cn)


Eugene Plotkin, who worked in the fixed-income research section of Goldman in New York, had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and to insider trading charges, was also fined $10,000 and ordered to repay the $6.7m and sentenced to four years and nine months. He and another former Goldman employee, David Pajcin, were accused of trading off tips leaked by an ex-Merrill Lynch investment banking analyst, as well as off stolen advance copies of BusinessWeek. (Source: telegraph.co.uk)


ESPN, one of the NBA's broadcast partners, along with Hong Kong mogul Li Ka-Shing, Bank of China, China Merchants Bank and Legend Holdings, will join the NBA in forming NBA China. NBA China, valued at about $2.3bn, is being run by former Microsoft executive Tim Chen, who was appointed last September. It will be governed by a board of directors that will include representatives from the investors, as well as current NBA team owners and league officials. (Source: Bloomberg reports)


Samsung said it filed suit seeking a preliminary injunction against Sharp in the Tokyo District Court on Dec.26. The suit alleges LCD TVs manufactured and sold by Sharp in Japan infringed on two LCD-related Japanese patents owned by Samsung. The company alleged that Sharp and its U.S. subsidiaries engaged in unfair trade by importing LCD products that infringed on four patents owned by Samsung. A Sharp spokesman said the company will take appropriate legal countermeasures.


The new entity, Deutsche Bank (China) Co Ltd, is a wholly foreign-funded subsidiary bank solely owned by Deutsche Bank AG, starting operation on Jan.1st. Under its license, it will be entitled to engage in a broader range of banking services including foreign exchange and yuan businesses such as receiving deposits and lending; buying and selling government bonds and financial bonds, etc. (Source: Shanghai Daily)


China's trade surplus came to a record US$262 billion in 2007, a year-on-year rise of 47.7%. The year also saw the EU replace the US as China's largest export market, with sales to the EU rising by 29.2% to America's 14%. The value of EU exports to China is nearly double that of the US so America's trade deficit with China is still much larger than that of Europe. (Source: chinaeconomicreview.com)


The European Commission said on Jan.14 it has decided to launch two new antitrust investigations against Microsoft, months after the software giant conceded defeat in their first round of legal battles. The investigations concern two separate categories of alleged infringements of EU competition rules on abuse of a dominant market position; one is in the field of inter-operability and the other relates to the tying together of separate software products. (Source: chinaview.cn)


Bradford & Bingley, a financial services company, has launched three new fixed rate bonds for savers, including a six-month fixed rate bond at 6.40% per annum gross, which matures on July 18, 2008, a one-year fixed rate bond at 6.50% per annum gross/AER, which matures on January 21, 2009, and a two-year fixed rate bond at 6% per annum gross/AER, which matures on January 20, 2010. (Source: banking-business-review.com)


China has replaced Brazil as Argentina's largest source of garment imports in 2007. Quoting figures released by Argentine Customs, the report issued by Argentina's Industry Economy Institute said Chinese clothing products have captured a growing share in Argentina's import market, rising to this year's 34.1 percent from 11.3 percent in 2005 and 17.5 percent in 2006. In comparison, the share of imports of Brazilian garments dropped to 16.2 percent in 2007 from 27.2 percent in 2005. (Source: Xinhua News Agency)


Tata, the Indian conglomerate, has emerged as the formal preferred bidder to buy Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford. The luxury car marques could fetch up to $2bn, although it is not yet clear what price Tata has offered. Tata also has to negotiate a settlement with pension trustees and will attempt to convince unions that the 15,000 British jobs of Jaguar and Land Rover at plants in Solihull, Castle Bromwich and Halewood are not at risk of being moved to India. (Source: telegraph.co.uk)


The corporate income tax law in China, which took effect on Jan. 1, 2008, replaced two earlier regulations that date back more than a decade and unifies income tax rates for domestic and foreign-funded companies at 25%. The cabinet said that the new law would be phased in over five years. Companies that currently pay income tax of 15% will pay 18% in 2008, 20% in 2009, 22% in 2010, 24% in 2011 and 25% from 2012. (Source: LawAndTax-News.com)


The Euro has now been officially adopted and is in full circulation within both Malta and Cyprus, bringing Europe another step closer to being one single currency area. During the dual circulation period running until Jan.31, 2008, the Maltese lira will continue to be legal tender in parallel with the euro. This procedure will also be carried out in Cyprus, where similar reports of a smooth changeover have emerged. (Source: LawAndTax-News.com)


Morgan Stanley is to write down an additional $5.7 billion of mortgage-related assets, taking the firm's total announced write-downs since the third quarter to $10.3 billion. The move pushed the investment house to the first quarterly loss in its 73-year history. Like UBS and Citigroup, Morgan Stanley has also unveiled an agreement with a sovereign fund, in this case Chinese, which will inject $5 billion in fresh capital through equity units with mandatory conversion into common stock. (Source: wealthbriefing.com)


Many banks and building societies have launched “January sales” – using introductory deals to attract the growing numbers of customers choosing to switch accounts. But experts warn that these headline rates often come with a catch and that consumers could be better off with much simpler deals. (Source: ft.com)


The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. announced that it became the largest U.S. stock exchange in 2007. Its matched volume in all U.S. securities was a record high 442.0 billion shares in 2007, an increase from 331.0 billion in 2006. Its matched market share of all U.S. equity share volume was at 29.1 percent in 2007, compared to 27.3 percent in 2006. In 2007, its matched volume in Nasdaq-listed securities was 250.8 billion shares, compared to 244.8 billion shares in 2006. (Source: chinaview.cn)


Goldman Sachs Group Inc on Jan. 4 raised its economic growth forecast for SKorea to 5.1 percent from 4.8 percent previously on expectation investments will pick up under the leadership of President-elect Lee Myung-Bak. The forecast, which is in line with local private research institutes' estimates that range between 5.0-5.1 percent, is more upbeat than the central bank's growth forecast of 4.7 percent. (Source: afxnews.com)


Since establishment of Honk Kong-based, The Bank of East Asia, in 2001, the Macau branch has been operating in Praia Grande. However, to support rapid business expansion in the south, the Macau branch has been relocated to the NAPE district. To ensure that customers near the former branch continue to enjoy convenience, the bank has opened its Macau Praia Grande sub-branch on the former premises of the Macau branch on Avenida Da Praia Grande. (Source: banking-business-review.com)


Sinopec will receive a government subsidy worth between US$2.75 billion and US$4.12 billion to offset losses sustained from low government-fixed fuel prices in China. Sinopec has received a subsidy in each of the last two years, but this year's payment surprised analysts, who believed Beijing's 10% hike in gasoline, diesel oil and aviation kerosene prices would be enough to keep its refineries profitable. (Source: chinaeconomicreview.com)


Japan's contribution last year to the world's nominal gross domestic product - the total output of goods and services produced, not adjusted for inflation - is the lowest since the Cabinet Office started releasing the data in 1980. Its 9.1% share of global output is nearly half of the 17.9% the world's second largest economy churned out in 1994. The figure also marked the sixth straight year of decline. Japan's output accounted for 10.2% in 2005, 11.1% in 2004 and 11.5% in 2003. (Source: Dow Jones Newswires)


China Mobile said on Jan.14 that it had broken off talks with Apple to offer the iPhone in China. It is said that Apple had given the impression it wanted to control the value chain and had pushed for up to 30 per cent of revenues generated by locally sold iPhones. European mobile operators T-Mobile of Germany, Orange of France and O2 in the UK reportedly pay Apple 10 per cent of the revenue derived from calls and data transfers by customers over iPhones. (Source: fichinese.com)

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