Money Matters with Hongbin Jeong and Chua Tian Tian

Supporting financial institutions in their efforts to leverage technology and transform digitally. That’s what we are going to talk about in this session with my guest from Temus.  Established by Temasek in partnership with UST, Temus provides digital transformation solutions for the private and public sectors, and aspires to be a strategic partner in realising the Singapore Government’s Smart Nation vision.  The Singapore headquartered firm has over 200 employees across a wide range of disciplines in strategy, design, architecture, technology, data and AI.  In the field of finance specifically, Temus recently announced a transformative partnership with award-winning fintech firm Nexus FrontierTech.  The collaboration aims to revolutionise the landscape of investing with the introduction of an AI-augmented portfolio management solution tailored for asset managers seeking unparalleled efficiency and performance. But what is the rationale behind this move and how far will this benefit FIs in Singapore?  Meanwhile, the firm had in April signed a partnership with AI Singapore to catalyse digital transformation, promote AI adoption, and develop new AI technologies, solutions, and applications for firms based in Singapore. What will this mean for firms within the financial industry here? In this Singapore Fintech Festival edition of Under the Radar, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Marcus Loh, Director, Temus.

In a sudden move, billionaire and AI evangelist Sam Altman has been fired as CEO of OpenAI. What does the surprise sacking mean for the AI race? The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum is over, but what did US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping accomplish? Elsewhere, as the conflict in Gaza continues to rage on, has the US been able to successfully broker a ceasefire deal with Israel and Hamas? Pushan Dutt, Professor of Economics, INSEAD gives us his analysis of the biggest headlines out of the US on this week's Washington Report. 

With an increasing focus on health and wellness, consumers are becoming more conscious about the ingredients used in their food. And in line with that, Glico has collaborated with the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in a first-of-its-kind clinical test in Southeast Asia to study the nutritional and health benefits of almonds in the paste form. Hideaki Nagahisa, COO, Glico Asia Pacific shares more about the findings from the clinical trial and how the company is keeping up with health-conscious trends. 

According to Microsoft's fourth annual Digital Defense Report, in the past year, cyberattacks have touched 120 countries, fueled by government-sponsored spying and with influence operations (IO) also rising.  Dennis Chung, Chief Security Officer, Microsoft Singapore shares more with us the findings from this report and the company's role in fighting cyber criminals. 

The 8th edition of the Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF) has wrapped up and this year’s theme centered around “The Application of AI in Financial Services”. Many talks were lined up from industry leaders and experts who shared the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities. Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief Fintech Officer, Monetary Authority of Singapore gives us a roundup of SFF 2023 and the highlights from this year's festival. 

Singapore shares struggled to advance at the open today, as a mixed performance on global stock markets clashed with a better-than-expected performance of the country’s October non-oil domestic exports (NODX). To recap, data from Enterprise Singapore showed that NODX shrank 3.4 per cent year on year, easing from steeper falls in preceding months.  In early trade, the Straits Times Index (STI) headed down 0.6 per cent to 3,114.28 points after 36.5 million securities changed hands in the broader market.  In terms of companies to watch today, we have Singtel. The telecommunications operator clarified yesterday that the Nov 8 Optus network outage in Australia was not caused by the upgrade of Singtel Internet Exchange, STiX.  Meanwhile, from Alibaba Group walking back on its plans to spin off and list its US$11 billion cloud business unit to Apple planning to make it easier to text between iPhones and Androids, more corporate headlines are in focus.  On Market View, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian unpacked the developments withSunny Soh, Lead Technical Analyst (Capital Markets & Investor Education), SIAS.

It has been close to four months since our earlier interview with the CEO of HSBC Singapore Kee Joo Wong.  At the time, we talked about HSBC’s new Innovation Banking Unit carved out from the UK subsidiary of SVB, and whether HSBC would move into catering services for players in the VC and startup landscape. Kee Joo told me to keep a lookout for an interesting development out of the unit that will be announced at the Singapore Fintech Festival.  The secret is now out, as HSBC Singapore announces a partnership with early-stage VC firm Antler to facilitate the growth of Southeast Asian innovation companies and entrepreneurs based in Singapore.  This collaboration aims to provide startups and founders that are a part of Antler’s network access to financial expertise and banking solutions such as preferred business banking accounts, venture debt and working capital facilities designed to support their needs and enable their growth and future expansion. But what is the rationale behind working with Antler? How will HSBC assess their risk profiles and ability to repay?  In this Singapore Fintech Festival edition of Under the Radar, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Jo Miyake, Chief Commercial Officer, Global Commercial Banking, HSBC.

Could we see a Singaporean in Formula 1, the pinnacle of motorsport, very soon? We certainly could, with 17-year old Christian Ho blazing a trail in the Spanish F4 Championship, and soon set to make the step up to Eurocup-3 series with Campos Racing. We catch up with the man himself on his 2023 exploits, and what the future holds! READ MORE: https://www.straitstimes.com/sport/singaporean-teen-christian-ho-takes-next-step-in-pursuit-of-f1-dream Got a story to tell? Get in touch with us! edanker@sph.com.sg | raushan@sph.com.sg

2023 marks Timbre Group’s 18th anniversary and now the group is a gearing up for expansion plans that will shape its future for the next 18 years and more. Danny Loong, Founder & CEO, Timbre Group shares more with us on his future plans for Timbre Group. 

Singapore stocks opened weaker today amid heavy trading on real estate investment trusts and declines among index counters. In early trade, the Straits Times Index (STI) headed down 0.5 per cent to 3,115.97 points after 52.6 million securities changed hands in the broader market. In terms of companies to watch, we have Singapore Airlines. The national carrier yesterday posted a 24.5 per cent year-on-year increase in passenger traffic in October, amid robust passenger traffic across all its route regions.  Elsewhere from SpaceX receiving approval for the second launch of its groundbreaking Starship rocket to Barclays attracting strong investor orders for an additional tier 1 (AT1) sale, more corporate headlines remain in focus. On Market View, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian dived into the details with David Chow, Director, Azure Capital.