Airbnb Inc. is finally getting the green light do business in Japan after years of operating in grey areas of the law. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet approved rules on Friday that limits home-sharing by private citizens to 180 days a year, according to the final draft of the legislation.
Category: Asia Travel
North Korean Banks Barred From Swift Global Messaging System
North Korean banks subject to international sanctions have recently been banned by Swift from using its global financial messaging service, according to a statement from the Belgium-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. Swift said it had recently been informed by Belgian authorities that they would no longer provide the “necessary authorizations” for it to continue offering services to North Korean banks covered by United Nations sanctions.
China Roils South Korean Stocks With News of Travel Curbs
South Korean stock trading offered a case in point Friday, with a selloff in hotels, cosmetic makers and other tourism-related companies that made the country’s benchmark the worst performer among Asian equity markets. The slide followed a Yonhap news agency report on China ordering travel agents to halt sales of holiday packages to South Korea.
VietJet Jumps 20% in Trading Debut as Travel Demand Soars
VietJet Aviation Joint Stock Co. surged by the 20 percent daily limit in its trading debut on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange, reflecting investor interest in Vietnam’s first mainboard-listed carrier as travel demand soars in the nation.
Four China Regulators Acting as One Shows Shift in Curbing Risk
China’s regulators are putting together a unified front seeking to beat back growing risks to the financial system from $8.7 trillion in asset management products, including investments in bonds and risky off-balance-sheet lending by banks. They’re working to draft sweeping new rules governing the surge in these products, Bloomberg News reported earlier this week and a regulator confirmed Wednesday.
Airports Gripped by Confusion as Courts Limit Trump Travel Curbs
Confusion reigned Sunday at airports in the Middle East and Europe over exactly which citizens from the seven nations subject to President Donald Trump’s travel ban are still permitted to fly to the U.S. Airlines at hubs from Dubai to London Heathrow were grappling with the implications of two court rulings in the U.S. late Saturday that have temporarily blocked the enforcement of parts of Trump’s executive order. In the hours after the presidential edict many airports imposed blanket bans on U.S. travel for citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, with Amsterdam Schiphol turning away seven people with valid visas, and Cairo denying boarding to migrants accompanied by United Nations officials.
Fire Sparks Double Bonanza for Refiners as Fuel Profits Jump
A slew of blazes at plants across the globe is shrinking supplies and boosting profits from turning crude into products such as gasoline and diesel. At least 13 refineries, including in Ruwais in Abu Dhabi, Deer Park in Texas and Tuapse in Russia with a combined capacity of about 1.8 million barrels a day, were struck by fire this month, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Virtual reality takes students on field trips to DC, volcanos and China
Students picked up white plastic visors and slid them onto their faces. Suddenly, they were 2,600 miles away, standing in Washington, D.C., next to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, with the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials visible as they turned their heads.
Hong Kong’s Housing Curbs Could Help End Singapore’s Slump
So says Cushman & Wakefield Inc., which expects the slide in the city-state’s home prices to end this year as foreign investors turned off by Hong Kong’s move to increase the stamp duty for overseas buyers look to Singapore instead. Desmond Sim, head of research for Singapore and Southeast Asia at CBRE Ltd., said Singapore house prices are approaching their trough, with a forecast price move of flat to minus 2 percent.
Special Prosecutors Question Samsung’s Lee in Bribery Probe
Special prosecutors began questioning Samsung Electronics Co. Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee on Thursday as a suspect in a bribery investigation, deepening an influence-peddling scandal that has already led to the impeachment of South Korea’s president.
VietJet Forecasts 30% Profit Rise Ahead of February Listing
VietJet Aviation Joint Stock Co., the Vietnam carrier known for its bikini-clad flight attendants, expects profit to surge 30 percent this year on rising passengers as it prepares for its Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange listing debut in February. A total of 23 overseas investors bought 66.5 million shares — equivalent to about 14 percent of VietJet — during a pre-listing stake sale last month, billionaire founder Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao said.
Fine Wine, Fast Profits: The Man Who Led BSI Bank Into the Abyss
He was the leader of one of the largest mass defections in private banking history, with more than 100 staff following him from RBS Coutts Bank Ltd. in the thick of the global credit crisis to create a financial phenomenon in Singapore at a little-known Swiss bank. Hanspeter Brunner, together with former deputy Raj Sriram and chief operating officer Gary Tucker, were the kernel of a plan by BSI SA, founded in 1873 in Lugano, to build up a $10 billion wealth-management business serving the burgeoning ranks of Asia’s millionaires.
New Year’s Money Curbs May Prompt More Use of China Outflow Pipe
On the day bank branches reopened after China imposed restrictions on citizens trying to spirit money out of the country, Wendy Chen went to her branch in Shanghai and peppered staff with questions about how to get around the new controls. She was asking after the Jan. 1 rules required people converting yuan into dollars to provide detailed information on how they planned to use the money abroad and restricting its use.
China’s Year of Cat-and-Mouse With Insurance Buyers in Hong Kong
It’s a game of cat-and-mouse that has gone on for most of this year, with Beijing showing no signs of winning yet. Each time China tightens up on money flowing out of the country for purchases of Hong Kong insurance, new routes seem to emerge.
Zhongan Online Said to Scrap H.K. IPO, Consider China Listing
Zhongan Online P&C Insurance Co. scrapped plans for an initial public offering in Hong Kong or the U.S. and is instead focusing on a listing in mainland China, people familiar with the matter said.
Chinese Buying Insurance in Hong Kong Said to Face Further Curbs
Chinese residents buying insurance in Hong Kong will no longer be able to swipe their credit cards multiple times to get around previously imposed curbs intended to slow sales, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Purchases of insurance in Hong Kong using MasterCard Inc. and Visa Inc. credit cards issued in China have been capped at $5,000 per insurance product, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the changes haven’t been made public.