How to make money in your sleep

Many fledgling creators dream of waking up to viral fame and riches. Now that dream is beginning to look a lot like reality.

Hundreds of TikTok users have begun livestreaming themselves overnight, while they sleep. Brian Hector, 18, did it just last week. Thousands of people tuned in. Some even donated to him.

“I woke up the next morning and ended the live and went over to my mom and was like, ‘Mom, I literally just made money falling asleep,’” said Hector, who has more than 347,000 followers on the app.

Through TikTok’s live feature, viewers can donate digital “coins” that can be cashed out for money. On Hector’s first sleep-stream, he said, he received about $10 (about P50) worth of coins — not riches, exactly, but more than he’d usually be paid to go to sleep ($0).

What most users hope to gain from these sleep-streams are followers. “Overnight my video blew up, and I got over 6,000 new followers,” said Oscar Reyes, 18. “After I stopped the stream I lost followers, so I don’t know if people were just following for the stream, but I grew substantially. I went from 12,000 to 18,600 followers.”

Jasmine Stephens, 16, said that for days, her “for you” feed on TikTok has been full of videos promoting sleep livestreams. “I scrolled and scrolled and saw more and more,” Stephens said. “I was like, OK this is a thing now. I saw videos with over 1 million likes.”

Though it is newly a trend on TikTok, sleeping on camera isn’t exactly a new concept. In 2015, many teenagers began casting their sleep on the platform YouNow, using the hashtag #sleepingsquad.

Twitch, which primarily hosts gaming livestreams, bans on-camera sleeping, since it counts as leaving a feed “unattended.” But plenty of people do it anyway. In January 2019, one Twitch streamer inadvertently passed out and woke up to 200 new followers. The clip, with more than 3.6 million views, has since become the most-watched Twitch video ever.

On Feb. 9, 18.5 million viewers tuned in to watch one man sleep on Douyin, TikTok’s Chinese counterpart.

Before they go live, TikTok sleep-streamers usually create a promotional video that they post to their feeds, advertising the sleep-stream happening that night. When bedtime approaches, they prop up their phones on their night stands, crawl under the covers and hit the live button.

“I’ve seen so many people start doing it,” Hector said. “The first time I saw it I thought it was honestly the weirdest thing but also the coolest thing.”

For users who watch sleep-streams, the appeal isn’t necessarily the person streaming but the pop-up community that forms in the stream’s chat section. Livestreams on TikTok aren’t archived, so sleep-streams, many of which are simply a dark blank screen, provide a time and place for users to meet.

“I think it’s about trying to find online friends,” Stephens said.

Todd Neer, 32, has watched a handful of sleep-streams and even done one himself.

“It creates a chance for a live online chat that’s not really available anywhere else in TikTok,” he said. “The sessions aren’t saved, so you just chat with whoever is there. It’s just an opportunity to have a more real-time dialogue than the comments section on someone’s post. It’s a hub for people to have conversations.”

Brian Mandler, a founder of the Network Effect, a digital agency focused on TikTok, said that the streams also provide a level of authenticity that so many users on the platform currently crave. “Audiences really like the behind the scenes of someone’s life,” he said. “They want authentic, engaging content. Watching someone sleeping, while it’s unique and somewhat strange, as you start to understand what really works on social media, it makes sense.”

Between the performance anxiety and all that blue light, not everyone can sleep through a livestream. Reyes said he woke up several times during his own; at one point, he saw about 600 people were tuned in and chatting. “When I woke up they’d be like, ‘OMG he’s awake!’” he said.

Because the sleep-streams are in real time and unedited — versus other TikToks — there are also safety concerns. Rylee Breann, 21, was deliberate about what her viewers would be able to see. “I didn’t show much of my room because I have a lot of pictures,” she said. “I didn’t want to show anything that showed where I lived. You could just see my head and my bed.”

Dale Adams, 21, said that he turned his phone over after a couple hours to shut the stream down. “It was kind of nerve-racking,” he said, “Like, what if someone could hack into my phone and figure out where I am?”

Some users have found other ways to idly host livestreams.

“People have gone live saying, ‘Oh, my parents don’t want me filming myself sleeping, so I’ll stream this other picture in another room overnight,’” Breann said.

“I’ve seen people livestream their rooftop overnight with 10,000 people watching, or people stream a glass of milk while they’re gone at work,” Reyes said. “All these people come into the live just to chat and make group chats.”

Rather than streaming his sleep, Joe Fay, 24, decided to livestream his white Tesla “sleeping” in the driveway overnight. He taped his phone to the window and hooked it up to a charger; by the morning he had accrued $50 worth of digital coins. “It’s a pretty easy thing to do,” he said, adding that he plans to continue streaming until the trend dies out.

The streams can have a pleasant, sedative effect. Some sleep-streamers play soft music, or perform a soothing bedtime routine for their viewers. The experience can be relaxing for the host too.

“When I did it, I felt like people were watching over me so nothing could happen to me,” Reyes said. “I slept like a baby.”


2020 The New York Times Company

China to destroy banknotes from coronavirus-hit sectors

The Guangzhou branch of China’s central bank said it would destroy all banknotes collected by hospitals, wet markets and buses to ensure the safety of cash transactions as the country battles a coronavirus epidemic.

Financial news outlet Caixin reported on Saturday that officials at the People’s Bank of China’s (PBOC) branch in the southern city ordered that all paper currency from sectors with high exposure to the coronavirus be withdrawn for destruction.

Commercial banks in the province should put banknotes from these sectors aside, disinfect them and hand them in to the PBOC.

The order comes after Fan Yifei, deputy governor of the central bank, said on Saturday that 600 billion yuan ($85.6 billion) of new banknotes had been distributed throughout the country since Jan. 17, including 4 billion yuan in fresh notes sent to Wuhan at the center of the outbreak before the Lunar New Year.

The central bank said that in general it would use high temperatures or ultraviolet light to disinfect cash, and store the currency for more than 14 days before putting it back in circulation.

Nearly 3 billion yuan in new banknotes was injected into the southern province of Guangdong, excluding Shenzhen, between Feb. 3 and 13, while 7.8 billion yuan was withdrawn from circulation, the PBOC said.

The banking industry extended 270 million yuan in cash through 1,249 transactions to government agencies, epidemic prevention and control related enterprises and other frontline units, Caixin reported. Cash withdrawals amounted to 800 million yuan through 6,186 transactions.


Central banks routinely collect and destroy old coins and banknotes in exchange for new ones. This does not affect the money supply, and is done to maintain a healthy amount of usable currency.

Caixin cited an unnamed deputy chief at a large joint stock bank in Guangzhou as saying that customers would be required to confirm the origin of the banknotes being deposited at their branches but in reality, “it would be difficult for such a measure to be completely effective”.

Fan also said that China had pledged extra funds to banks, prodding them to help manufacturers and businesses pull through headwinds from the China-US trade war and the nation’s worst health crisis in nearly two decades.

Economic growth, which already slowed to 6 percent in the fourth quarter, is likely to sputter further in the three months ending in March, with an estimated 50 million workers forced to stay home since late January, disrupting production of everything from clothing to toys and crucial components.

The State Administration of Foreign Exchange said it had help fast-track 1,370 foreign exchange transactions in China between January 27 and February 12, including 70 for imports into Hubei, mainly for the purchase of masks, protective gear and production materials.

Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

China cleans, locks away banknotes to stop virus spread

BEIJING - China is disinfecting and isolating used banknotes as part of efforts to stop the spread of the new coronavirus that has killed more than 1,500 people, officials said Saturday.

Banks use ultraviolet light or high temperatures to disinfect yuan bills, then seal and store the cash for 7 to 14 days -- depending on the severity of the outbreak in a particular region -- before recirculating them, China's central bank said at a press conference.

The virus, which has infected more than 66,000 people in China and spread to more than 2 dozen other countries, has sparked a rush to disinfect public places and minimize contact between people.


Pharmacies across the country sold out of disinfectants and surgical masks in just days after a lockdown was announced in late January on Wuhan city, where the COVID-19 illness is believed to have emerged.

Office buildings have installed packets of tissue in elevators that tenants are encouraged to use when pressing buttons, while ride-hailing company Didi exhorts drivers to disinfect their cars daily.

'EMERGENCY ISSUANCE'

Fan Yifei, deputy governor of China's central bank, said Saturday that banks have been urged to provide new banknotes to customers whenever possible.

The central bank made an "emergency issuance" of 4 billion yuan in new notes to Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak, prior to the recent Lunar New Year holiday, Fan added.

The measures are intended to "secure the public's safety and health when using cash," Fan said.

But it is unclear how wide an impact the central bank's disinfection work will have, with increasing numbers of Chinese people preferring mobile payments over cash in recent years.

In 2017, nearly three-quarters of Chinese respondents told an Ipsos survey they could survive a whole month without using more than 100 yuan in cash.

According to the World Health Organization, COVID-19 can be spread through contaminated objects in addition to droplets and direct contact with infected patients.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Hackers cripple airport currency exchanges, seek $6 million ransom

The numbers that usually glow with exchange rates on Travelex boards in airports worldwide have gone dark, after the London-based currency exchange company was forced to go offline after it discovered a ransomware attack on Dec. 31.

The disruption has also affected banks like Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC, which have been unable to fulfill foreign currency orders for their customers.

Travelex said it had contained the threat and had no evidence that customer data had been removed. It has been offering only over-the-counter services since New Year’s Eve, when it discovered that it had been compromised by ransomware known as Sodinokibi, or REvil.

The hackers told the BBC on Wednesday that they had downloaded 5 gigabytes of sensitive customer data since gaining access to Travelex six months ago and intended to sell it if there was no response by Jan. 14. They have demanded $6 million for the data’s return.

Travelex, which has more than 1,200 stores, kiosks and counters in at least 70 countries, said in an online statement that it did not have a “complete picture” of what had happened to its data.

The company declined to provide details on how many customers had been affected, what data was at risk or when it expected the problem to be resolved.

“We take very seriously our responsibility to protect the privacy and security of our partner and customers’ data,” Tony D’Souza, the Travelex chief executive, said in the statement.

Travelex is still changing money, but must do the calculations by hand, based on rates issued each morning from its headquarters. At a central London branch of Travelex on Thursday, its ATMs permitted withdrawals only in pounds and the screens that usually show the exchange rates offered for each currency were blank.

The episode raised questions about how many more parts of the financial system could be at risk, said Bob Sullivan, a cybersecurity expert.

“We would not normally think of a company like Travelex as infrastructure, but clearly it is,” Sullivan said. “A big payment company that has tentacles into hundreds of institutions: It’s a reminder of how fragile these systems are.”


2020 The New York Times Company

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Check by Google: Internet giant wants to make banking smart

Google already has a valuable stash of your digital data. Now it wants your cash, too.

The search giant is teaming up with two banks, Citigroup and the Stanford Federal Credit Union, to begin offering a “smart checking” account next year. What fancy new features will “smart checking” include? Google isn’t sure. Neither are its partners.

The project, code-named Cache, is envisioned as an extension of the Google Pay digital payments system. Its goal is to help banks’ customers “benefit from useful insights and budgeting tools,” according to Craig Ewer, a Google spokesman. The focus will be mobile-first users, he said, but the specifics of what will be offered are still being worked out.

Technology companies have been trying to plant stakes in consumers’ wallets for more than a decade, with limited success. And banks have realized that digital-native millennials have the same core banking needs — a safe place to stash cash and easy ways to retrieve it — as the generations that favored marble-floored lobbies lined with teller windows.

But attempts to create digitally focused alternatives to traditional banking have largely found only niche audiences — or fizzled out entirely.

JPMorgan Chase recently shut down Finn, a no-fee digital account with limited branch access that was aimed at younger customers. Simple, a startup that hoped to upend the banking industry with tech innovations and customer-friendly terms, was bought by a big bank, BBVA. So-called neo-banks like Chime, Aspiration and Varo have won converts, but their customer bases remain small.

Some recent offerings have hit snags. Apple’s new Apple Card, issued through a partnership with Goldman Sachs, is being investigated by New York state regulators after customer complaints about gender bias in spending limits. And Facebook lost key partners like Mastercard and Visa just months after unveiling Libra, its cryptocurrency project.

There are good reasons some of these ideas have sputtered. While customers have plenty of frustrations with their banks — high fees, paltry interest rates and poor service — those aren’t complaints that technology companies are usually positioned to solve. And tech-focused features that bank users want, like fast peer-to-peer payments, card-free transactions and in-app budgeting assistance, are now offered by nearly all large banks.

For a new product or service to succeed, it has to offer something new and shiny enough to motivate consumers to leave their existing provider. Thad Peterson, a senior analyst at Aite Group, said many of these efforts failed to take off because they weren’t revolutionizing anything.

“Human beings are by nature subject to inertia,” Peterson said. “And when it comes to banking,” he added, “you have to find a way to make something so superior that people want to have it.”

Google’s initial ambitions for Cache are fairly modest. It is not seeking a banking charter — something it could have done through a new regulatory pathway intended to encourage fintech experiments — and will instead rely on its bank partners to hold and manage customers’ accounts. The Stanford Federal Credit Union said it planned to offer co-branded accounts, with Google developing the user interface and the credit union handling all the banking functions.

Citigroup representatives did not respond to a request for details on their product plans.

There are lots of reasons Google would want to edge into the banking industry, said Ron Shevlin, the research director at Cornerstone Advisors, a banking consultancy.

Google wants to increase use of its wallet app, which competes with offerings from Apple and Samsung, Shevlin said. And it may want to deepen its ties to a sector that already uses its technology; some banks, like HSBC, store their data on Google Cloud. And if the company could develop front-end banking tools that interest customers, Google could potentially lace them with ads. (Google previously created, then shut down, a financial products comparison shopping site.)

But for consumers, the value of such a partnership is unclear.

As people grow more wary of entrusting their personal data to tech companies, persuading them to hand their checking account over to a partnership involving Google may be a hard sell. And customers typically switch bank accounts only when they’re offered something financially valuable, like lower fees, more attractive rewards for spending or higher interest rates. Google and its partners haven’t commented on what kind of terms they might offer.

So what will make Google’s “smart checking” different from a regular old checking account?

“Those are some of the details that will be determined closer to launch,” said Joan Opp, the chief executive of the Stanford Federal Credit Union.


2019 The New York Times Company

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UN may run out of money by end of the month: Guterres

UNITED NATIONS, United States - The United Nations is running a deficit of $230 million, Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Monday, and may run out of money by the end of October.

In a letter intended for the 37,000 employees at the UN secretariat and obtained by AFP, Guterres said unspecified "additional stop-gap measures" would have to be taken to ensure salaries and entitlements are paid.

"Member States have paid only 70 per cent of the total amount needed for our regular budget operations in 2019. This translates into a cash shortage of $230 million at the end of September. We run the risk of depleting our backup liquidity reserves by the end of the month," he wrote.

To cut costs, Guterres mentioned postponing conferences and meetings and reducing services, while also restricting official travel to only essential activities and taking measures to save energy.

Guterres had asked member states earlier this year to up contributions to the world body to head off cash flow problems, but they refused, a UN official said on condition of anonymity.

"The ultimate responsibility for our financial health lies with Member States," Guterres said.

Not including what it pays for peacekeeping operations, the UN's operating budget for 2018-2019 is close to $5.4 billion, with the United States contributing 22 percent. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

World's richest families fret about geopolitics, climate change

LONDON - The world's richest families are worried about the US-China trade spat, Brexit, populism and climate change and are keeping more of their money in cash, according to a survey of family offices by the world's largest wealth manager.

Forty-two percent of family offices - set up to manage the wealth of one or more rich families - have increased their cash piles this year, according to the survey of 360 family offices by Swiss bank UBS and Campden Wealth Research.

Total cash reserves were 7.6 percent of family office investments in 2019, up 70 basis points from a year earlier.

Fifty-five percent of family office executives expect recession to begin by next year, 63 percent believe Brexit is negative for Britain as an investment destination in the long term and 84% think populism will not fade by next year.

"Family offices are taking a dim view of geopolitical events," Sara Ferrari, head of UBS’ Global Family Office Group, told Reuters.

Fifty-three percent of family offices see climate change as the single greatest threat to the world, with newer generations running the family money putting sustainable investing high on the agenda, the survey said.

Family offices' views did not necessarily differ from those of institutional investors - pension funds, insurers and sovereign wealth funds - or of the asset managers who help invest their money, Ferrari said.

But family offices had more flexibility in their investments, were less tied to specific benchmark indices and tended to invest more in illiquid long-term assets, she said.

Private equity was the second largest investment class in 2019 behind developed market equities. Family offices said they plan to focus more on private equity next year - buying stakes in unlisted companies or the funds which invest in those companies - with a particular interest in technology firms.

Direct private equity investment achieved the best returns for the families this year, at 16 percent.

The family offices overall had a return of 5.4 percent, based on different methodology from previous surveys, and compared with a 2.2 percent drop in the MSCI All Country World Index in the 12 months to May 2019.

The surveyed firms manage a total of $330 billion in assets.

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Mystery donor giving away bags filled with cash in Germany

A mystery German donor has handed over "miracle bags" packed with cash estimated to be worth a total of 200,000 euros for local causes this year, the DPA news agency reported Tuesday.

Bags, each stuffed with notes worth between 20,000 and 100,000 euros, have been appearing at a local Brunswick newspaper, the Braunschweiger Zeitung, with instructions of which local charity the money should go to.

Repairs to churches and a bureau to help crime victims are examples of causes to benefit.

The cash bags have been appearing intermittently in the north-central region since 2011, but newspaper staff estimate around 200,000 euros have been handed over this year alone, yet the donor's identity remains a mystery.

"We simply don't know, and we don't want to endanger the good deed," admitted Brunswick journalist David Mache.

The chief editor said the mystery donor has contacted the paper several times recently to hand in cash.

The latest donation, worth 100,000 euros in 200 bills and marked "Wundertuete" ('miracle bag'), was left at the newspaper's office on Monday with a request for it to be given to a local hospice.

"To make it easier for seriously ill people to die is a sign of human warmth and earns respect and recognition," was written in an attached letter with an assurance the money came from taxed income.

Employees at the nearby hospice, which has beds for 12 terminally ill patients and cares for up to 20 people per year, were delighted by the cash gift and can't stop smiling, director Petra Gottsand told broadcaster NDR after receiving the hospice's largest single donation. "It's crazy."

Now Brunswick locals are puzzled as to whether the latest flurry of donations is from the same source which has been providing the area with generous gifts since 2011.

A year ago, 100,000 euros was handed into the offices of a rival newspaper in nearby Wolfsburg with a request to build a hospice.

Between 2011 and 2013, around 250,000 euros were donated anonymously to kindergartens, soup kitchens and social projects in the region -- along with a Braunschweiger Zeitung clipping to indicate the intended recipient.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

8 Ways to Attract Good Fortune this Chinese New Year

MANILA -- It’s that time of year when dragons come out to play. The Chinese New Year, also called the Lunar New Year, and also known as the Spring Festival, falls on February 5 but celebrations begin today on what the Chinese consider as the New Year’s Eve.

But don’t think the festivities only run for two days – the Spring Festival actually lasts for 15 days, beginning from the new moon on New Year’s Day until the full moon on the Lantern Festival.

In China, stores are closed for the first five days of their longest holiday season so much of the shopping must be done before the red letter date. The Chinese can enjoy no work for at least a week, some as long as 10 days, or even until the Lantern Festival.

Why such a long vacation? Well, it could be because the advent of a New Year is welcomed with great ceremony and a host of traditions designed to bring families together and attract prosperity in the coming year.

In fact, their planning involves two main themes: first has to do with cleansing or clearing away all of the previous year’s bad luck; and second, preparing the home to receive the next year’s good fortune.

Considering the prosperity they enjoy in China and elsewhere in the world, if you want to make merry along with our Chinese brothers and sisters and also attract good fortune, here are a few things to keep in mind.

1. Sweep away bad luck with a clean home.

In the days leading up to New Year’s Day, the Chinese are busy giving their homes a thorough cleaning. It’s not just to see what items they own still spark joy so they can keep it and throw the rest away. Ceilings are dusted, windows are scrubbed, floors are mopped, and furniture all wiped clean to sweep away the bad luck of the past year. A clean home is a happy home so what are you waiting for?

2. Prepare to feast on New Year’s Eve.

If you’ve enjoyed a Chinese Lauriat, you know that the Chinese are serious about their feasts. In a Lauriat or special occasion, at least 10 dishes are served and guests dine for hours. You could serve your and your family’s favorites but do not forget to include fish. That’s because the Chinese word for “surplus” or “profit” sounds similar to the word for fish. That’s why they believe eating fish will bring wealth in the new year. It’s an excellent source of protein and healthy too so why not?

3. Paint the town red.

When you have the feast planned out, time to decorate and there is only one color to keep in mind: red. Chinatowns around the world transform into scarlet parades from red lanterns to posters and papers bearing lucky characters. It’s not just the streets that undergo the red change – businesses, storefronts and homes – basically every place that wants to attract good fortune dress up in the festive décor. The color red is associated with wealth in Chinese culture, and this is one tradition that they embrace not only in China but also in their diasporas worldwide.

4. Get ready with ear plugs for the Dragon and Lion dances.

The Chinese believe that dragons bring luck, and that’s why dragon dances are performed in almost all special occasions. And if you are wondering why some dances go on and on and on until you are nearly deaf thanks to the gongs, cymbals, and drums, well that’s because they also believe the longer the dragon is in the dance, the more luck it will bring to the community. One more plus: they say the dances also scare away evil spirits.

5. Stockings are out, and red envelopes are in.

The Chinese are also big on exchanging gifts for the New Year, but they prefer to hand it over as cash gifts in red envelopes or ang-paos. As a child, I used to look forward to New Year because all your older relatives are sure to hand you one. Some will have token amounts (hey it’s the thought that counts) but others tend to be a bit more generous and you can feel it from the thickness of the envelope as they hand it over. Ang-paos are usually given by adults to children and from married couples to their younger, unmarried family members. Some bosses also present them to employees (sadly, this has yet to happen to me).

6. Don’t forget the tikoy!

You’ll know it’s Chinese New Year when these red boxes of sticky treats start arriving. Another preferred gift, many Chinese present this to one another, or to their non-Chinese friends to also wish them prosperity. This usually comes in a round shape like a pie, but there are also gourmet varieties and for twice to thrice the price, you can get one shaped like a fish or the Chinese zodiac symbol for the year (for 2019, that’s the pig).

7. Are you ready for it?

When your home is sparkling, the feast about to be served, and gifts waiting to be exchanged, make sure you are personally ready too! The Chinese like to visit the barber or salon and get a fresh haircut or trim. They also have the excuse to shop for a Spring Festival wardrobe, and of course, new red clothing is best. A new you – thanks to a new hairstyle and outfit – are also believed to bring good luck, ensuring a fresh start for the new year.

8. Make sure to settle your debts.

This one may be a tough thing to do unless you have a lot of cash lying around, but still a healthy practice so people stay disciplined about their finances. Again for the Chinese, this has a traditional and symbolic meaning, which is to “close the books” at the end of the year and start a more fortunate page in the new year. But what happens if you don’t? You can expect red paint to be splashed on your door, as one multinational bank discovered after the new year. Allegedly, one of its employees owed money and the debt collectors decided to spill some (figurative) blood, just enough to scare them into paying up!

I admit none of these are guaranteed to pad your pockets, but traditions that survived thousands of years did so for good reason so where’s the harm? Wishing you all Xin Nian Kuai Le! (Happy New Year), or even better Gong Xi Fa Cai! (Wishing you Prosperity).

source: news.abs-cbn.com

World's rich grow richer as bull markets roar on - study

ZURICH - The pool of money held by the world's wealthiest people grew by 12 percent last year to nearly $202 trillion as bull markets and the dollar's weakening against most major currencies boosted global fortunes, an international advisory firm's study released on Thursday said.

Adjusted for exchange rate swings, wealth rose 7 percent, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) survey found.

While residents of North America held the greatest share of personal wealth at almost 43 percent, the fastest growth came in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Most super-rich individuals lived in the United States, China and Japan.

The business of providing advice to those super-rich is still strong in North America.

However, legacy retail brokerages such as Morgan Stanley , Bank of America Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, UBS AG Group's Wealth Management in the Americas and Wells Fargo Advisors lost market share as less wealthy clients went elsewhere.

Legacy brokerages' market share fell to 37 percent in 2016 from 41 percent in 2012, while the portion held by direct channel firms such as Charles Schwab and Fidelity grew modestly to 21 percent from 20 percent.

More than 35 million Americans now have between $250,000 and $1 million, a wealth bracket the industry calls mass affluent. BCG senior partner Brent Beardsley said that many mass affluent savers hold a lot of their money in a retirement account, like a 401(k), which oftentimes are managed by a company like Schwab or Fidelity.

"(They have) a natural structural advantage" over legacy brokerages, Beardsley said.

BCG's annual study also showed Switzerland remained the world's biggest centre for managing offshore wealth with $2.3 trillion, followed by Hong Kong with $1.1 trillion and Singapore with $0.9 trillion.

The two Asian centers have grown at yearly rates of 11 and 10 percent respectively over the past five years, more than three times the 3 percent rate Switzerland has posted.

It is in the fast-growing markets that large wealth managers including Swiss banks UBS and Credit Suisse are casting wider nets.

The Swiss banking secrecy from which they long profited has been weakened, meaning rich people from around the world can no longer easily use the Alpine Republic to stash wealth away from tax authorities at home.

The changes have put Switzerland in fierce competition with faster-growing centres like Hong Kong and Singapore. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

PayPal buys payments startup iZettle for $2.2 billion

SAN FRANCISCO - PayPal on Thursday announced a deal to buy Swedish online commerce startup iZettle for $2.2 billion, a deal that came as the young company was poised for a stock market debut.

US-based PayPal, a unit of eBay, said that its biggest acquisition to date would strengthen its platform for handling payment transactions at small businesses, particularly in Europe and Latin America.

"Small businesses are the engine of the global economy and we are continuing to expand our platform to help them compete and win online, in-store and via mobile," PayPal chief executive Dan Schulman said in a release.

"In today's digital world, consumers want to be able to buy when, where and how they want."

Schulman described the merging of iZettle and PayPal as a "strategic fit" combining shared values and culture with complementary product offerings and geographies.

The iZettle platform for handling retail transactions is used by nearly a half million merchants, according to PayPal.

The startup has been compared to Square, a payments platform co-founded by Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey that made it easy to take credit card payments using smartphones or tablets.

Buying iZettle will expand PayPal's reach into shops in Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden.

"Combining our assets and expertise with a global industry leader like PayPal allows us to deliver even more value to small businesses to help them succeed in a world of giants," iZettle chief executive Jacob de Geer said in the release.

The Stockholm-based startup founded in 2010 expected to handle about $6 billion in transactions this year, taking in gross revenue of approximately $165 million in the process. The company said it expected to reach profitability by the year 2020.

After close of the acquisition, co-founder Jacob de Geer will remain in charge of iZettle, reporting to PayPal chief operating officer Bill Ready, according to the companies.

Earlier this month, iZettle filed paperwork to go public with an offering of shares that valued the company at slightly more than a billion dollars.

PayPal closed the Nasdaq trading day in New York with a market value of about $94 billion based on its share price, which rose a percent to $80 in after-hours trades.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

U.S. dollar heads for worst year since 2003

NEW YORK - The dollar fell to its lowest in over three months against a basket of major currencies on Friday, on track for its biggest annual drop since 2003, on doubts over durability of a pickup in U.S. economic growth in wake of last week's tax overhaul.

One of the most dramatic market developments in 2017 was the breath-taking rise of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. While they have pulled back at year-end, many of these digital currencies have surged in value this year.

The greenback may lag further against its peers in 2018 as investors expected other major central banks to reduce their stimulus while the Federal Reserve has signaled it would raise interest rates further, analysts said.

"The dollar will face more headwinds in 2018," said Chris Gaffney, president of Everbank in St. Louis, Missouri. "The Fed won't be going at it alone in terms of taking off more gas from the stimulus pedal."

Bets the European Central Bank might consider raising interest rates by the end of 2018 due to evidence of higher inflation and business activity in the euro have lifted the euro, which was poised for its best yearly performance versus the greenback in 14 years.

The euro hit a three-month peak at $1.2013, bringing its annual gain to 14.1 percent. It was last up 0.68 percent at $1.2022.

Euro's rally was a drag on the greenback in 2017. The index that tracks the dollar versus the euro and five other major currencies fell as low as 92.169, which the lowest since Sept. 22. It was on track for its steepest annual decline since 2003.

The dollar also weakened against the yen, sterling, Canadian dollar, Swedish krona and Swiss franc, which are the other index components this year.

The dollar index at a 14-year peak at the start of 2017 on hopes for U.S. President Donald Trump's pro-growth economic agenda. Barring the most dramatic rewrite of the U.S. tax code in 20 years enacted last week, Trump and Republican lawmakers have struggled to pass legislation.

Furthermore, many institutional investors close their books at the year-end, a deadline for taxation and performance reporting, a time seen leading to dollar selling pressure, analysts said.

Outside of traditional currencies, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies rebounded after two days of losses tied partly to more regulators toughening rules on digital currencies in a bid to curb excessive speculation.

Bitcoin was last up 1.13 percent at $14,599.99 on the Bitstamp exchange. It was off the record highs near $20,000 touched 12 days ago but still headed for a gain of roughly 1,400 percent in 2017.

Financial markets around the world will be closed on Monday on New Year's Day.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Bitcoin breaks $10,000 barrier, raising fears of bubble

SINGAPORE - Bitcoin broke above the $10,000 mark for the first time on Wednesday as the virtual currency continued a stratospheric rise that has seen it increase more than tenfold this year.

The cryptocurrency surged to a high of $10,059 in early Asian hours, according to Bloomberg News, though the recent surge in the volatile unit has fuelled fears of a bubble.

Launched in 2009 as a bit of encrypted software written by someone using the Japanese-sounding name Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin has had a roller-coaster ride that has taken it from just a few US cents to its current sky-high valuation.

Traded on specialist platforms, with no legal exchange rate and no central bank backing it, Bitcoin is monitored and regulated by its community of users, and is used to buy everything from pizza to a pint in a London pub.

But it has attracted widespread criticism, from financial industry titans to governments.

JP Morgan Chase boss Jamie Dimon in September slammed the unit as a "fraud" and said he would fire his employees if they were caught trading it, while China has shut down Bitcoin trading platforms and South Korea's prime minister Tuesday voiced fears it could lead the young to get involved in fraudulent crime.

Analysts say the popularity has been driven by growing interest from major investors and a decision last month by exchange giant CME Group to launch a futures marketplace for the currency, which has not been listed on a major bourse before.

But there is growing unease with the rate of growth, which has seen it increase in value from a 2017 low of $752 in mid-January.

"This is a bubble and there is a lot of froth. This is going to be the biggest bubble of our lifetimes," warned hedge fund manager Mike Novogratz at a cryptocurrency conference Tuesday in New York, according to Bloomberg News.

Commentators also suggest some are buying it as an alternative bet in times of global economic uncertainty.

But critics point to its volatility, an apparent vulnerability to theft and its use in illicit purchases online.

In one of the most high-profile scandals to hit the currency, major Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange MtGox collapsed in 2014 after admitting that 850,000 coins -- worth around $480 million at the time -- had disappeared from its vaults.

Bitcoin's use on the underground Silk Road website, where users could use it to buy drugs and guns, was also presented as proof it was a bad thing.

Despite concerns, most observers believe it is unlikely to suffer heavy falls soon.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

New digital piggy bank helps Swiss kids save

ZURICH - In Switzerland, one of the world's wealthiest countries, financial planning starts young.

The country's number two bank Credit Suisse on Tuesday unveiled a piggy bank with built-in apps allowing children under 12 to set savings goals, check their balance and make payments.

"The financial education of children is a concern to people in Switzerland," Credit Suisse said in a statement, citing a recent study showing that 90 percent of parents in the wealthy Alpine nation want their children to learn how to handle money.

The study, conducted by the amPuls market research firm on behalf of Credit Suisse, also found that most children in Switzerland not only receive pocket money but "are frugal with it".

According to the research, Swiss parents have asked questions about how to teach children about money when it increasingly exists in digital form instead of coins and notes that can be stored in an old-fashioned piggy bank.

Named Viva Kids, the piggy bank "provides a wide range of options for teaching kids in a simple way how cash and digital money work and how to use them," Credit Suisse said.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

What To Do When Comparing Personal Loans

MANILA - Looking to get a personal loan? You may be looking for alternative sources of funding for big life purchases, such as your child’s tuition or a long holiday abroad. You may be looking for extra funds to start a business or for some long-overdue home repairs.

Banks and lending agencies can surely help. Provided that your financial history meets their expectations, you can borrow the money you need with a personal loan.

Personal loans work very differently from other types of debt, such as credit cards and mortgages. Here, we give you the most important details you should look for when shopping for a personal loan:

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Most Asia FX set for 2016 losses; yuan depreciates most since 1994

SINGAPORE - Asian currencies rose on the last trading day of 2016 on Friday, but most were set to post annual losses as the U.S. dollar climbed on expectations of higher interest rates next year.

Emerging Asian currencies were generally higher on the day, with the dollar losing some steam after the euro briefly soared on stop-loss buying in thin year-end trading.

"This is more a position adjustment rather than something fundamentally changing in the background," said Sim Moh Siong, FX strategist for Bank of Singapore.

"Our view is still for Asian currencies to weaken over the course of next year," he said.

While Asian currencies could rebound early in 2017 if the dollar retreats, such a pull-back could provide an opportunity to buy the greenback on dips, Sim added.

Investors are waiting to see if U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will quickly push expansionary fiscal policies once he is sworn in on Jan. 20, which would boost expectations for higher inflation and interest rates.

The Chinese yuan was the worst performer among major Asian currencies in 2016, and market watchers expect it to recoil further next year if the dollar continues to climb.

The yuan is down nearly 6.6 percent against the dollar in 2016, putting it on track for its biggest annual fall since China established its foreign exchange market in 1994.

Concerns about capital outflows and a slowdown in China's economy have weighed on the yuan along with the stronger dollar, and investors are also worried about a potential increase in U.S.-China trade tensions under the incoming Trump administration.

The Taiwan dollar is on track for an yearly gain of 2.7 percent, making it the best performing emerging Asian currency in 2016.
The Taiwan dollar had gained a boost earlier this year, helped by large foreign investor inflows into Taiwanese equities.

Overseas investors, however, have pulled money out of Taiwanese equities in the fourth quarter, and that has weighed on the Taiwan dollar as of late.

Emerging Asian currencies have declined broadly since early November as U.S. bond yields jumped on expectations that Trump's proposals for infrastructure spending and tax cuts will boost economic growth and inflation.

Worries about Trump's stance on trade have also weighed on the currencies of export-dependent countries in Asia.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Tips for Investing in Your 20s

It’s a great idea to begin investing as early as possible. However, many people are a bit too timid to begin investing in their 20s, fearing they aren’t skilled or knowledgeable enough. For others, the idea of putting money into investments seems silly when there are more important things to do with that money, like pay bills. However, if you really want to secure a strong financial future for yourself, then it is well worth getting into investing early. Here are some tips you can use as you get started.

Don’t Buy Into the Limited Resources Myth

As mentioned, many 20-somethings don’t even think about investing because they believe they don’t have the extra money to do it. This isn’t really true, though. For most people, this is the time when they have some extra cash because they don’t have kids, mortgages or other obligations that can drain finances. It is probably going to be easier for you to find extra money now than in the future.

Start Small

Another cause for hesitation is often a fear of not knowing what to do. You don’t have to jump in with both feet right from the start and probably shouldn’t. A good starting place is with your 401k if your employer offers one. You can try out different options and see how things go. You may even be able to learn a bit about corporate finance, like the information from UAB Online, which will be super helpful down the road. As you begin to work more with investing, you’ll begin to learn more, which will lead to more confidence and the ability to branch out with your investing.

Take a Few Risks

Since you are young, you have time on your side. A few losses won’t really hurt you in the long run because you have a lot of years ahead of you to make things up. Going with bigger risks allows you to have the chance to get big returns. If things pay off, you can get a great start to saving for your future. You should avoid sticking with just investments that have little risk because the returns are way too small. While you have time for them to add up, you still won’t be able to earn anywhere as much as you would if you took a risk every now and then.

Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Help

You shouldn’t be afraid to get help with your investing. In fact, it is a smart idea. Despite starting out small and with easy investment, getting a professional to weigh in can be tremendously helpful. Even if you are currently enrolled in a business course, like on from Northeastern, you still can benefit from help. Not only will they be able to direct you properly, they will teach you a lot about investing that will come in handy in the years ahead.

Following these tips can help you to get started with investing now. Doing it while you are young can be incredibly beneficial to your future. The bottom line is to not let fears hold you back and to take some risks now while you have the time .

source: 20smoney.com

Indians disclose $10 billion in hidden wealth

NEW DELHI -- Indians have declared almost $10 billion in hidden wealth under a government amnesty on tax evasion, as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's moves to crack down on huge piles of black money.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the four-month scheme that closed on Friday had resulted in 64,275 declarations of previously undisclosed assets and income, totaling 652.5 billion rupees ($9.8 billion).

"With so many people declaring money it shows a significant number of people want to become tax compliant," Jaitley told reporters in New Delhi on Saturday.

"This figure could be revised upward once the final tabulation is done," the minister said, adding that the additional revenue would help fund public welfare schemes.

India's taxpayers are startlingly few, with only around 2.5 percent of its 1.2 billion population filing returns -- largely because the so-called unorganised sector employs so many people who are paid cash.

Modi vowed to crack down on tax avoidance to tackle the country's yawning inequality after storming to power at elections in 2014.

His government introduced a slew of rules this year including making it mandatory to declare a unique taxpayer number when purchasing goods over 200,000 rupees.

Under the scheme, authorities promised not to pursue Indians in return for coming clean on hidden wealth and paying tax on it.

But accountants and other experts remained sceptical about whether Indians would cough up their wealth. The government did not announce a public target for the initiative.

Across all levels of society, rounding up tax is difficult when dodging it is practically a national sport, from small-time landlords who request rent in cash to large-scale money laundering via state lotteries.

Only six people earning over 500 million rupees ($7.4 million) filed returns in 2012-2013, despite there being an estimated 2,100 ultra-wealthy Indians whose net worth exceeds $50 million.

Billions of dollars in unpaid taxes deprive the government of revenues that could be spent on changing lives in a country where 270 million people survive on less than $2 a day, according to the World Bank.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Colombia features writer Garcia Marquez on banknote

BOGOTA - Colombia started circulating a new 50,000-peso banknote on Friday bearing the likeness of late Nobel-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

The light purple piece of money, worth the equivalent of $17.40, "pays honor to a person who carried Colombia's name far and wide from the middle of the last century," the head of the country's central bank, Jose Dario Uribe, said.

The banknote was launched in a ceremony in Santa Marta, a town on Colombia's Caribbean coast, close to Garcia Marquez's birthplace, that served as the setting for the writer's landmark 1967 novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude."

The first retail bank customer to receive the new bill, Jadis Saker, said "this moment will remain carved into my memory," according to the newspaper El Heraldo.

Garcia Marquez, who was born in 1927, started out as a journalist before finding fame as an author and pioneering a style called "magic realism." In 1982 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature

He died in April 2014 aged 87, in Mexico, where he lived with his wife.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Asian shares flat as China trade data weighs

SINGAPORE/TOKYO - Asian shares were flat on Wednesday, as weak Chinese export data offset a brightening energy sector outlook and an expected delay in interest rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.1 percent, amid subdued risk appetite as markets braced for weak May trade data out of China due today.

Japan's Nikkei extended losses to trade 0.3 percent lower, weighed down by a stronger yen.

"Global equities are firmer, but it is not indicative of an uptake in risk appetite. The upmove was mostly driven by higher oil prices," Bernard Aw, market strategist at IG, wrote in a note. "Therefore, Asia may not see much of a risk-on session today, as market participants remain cautious."

Chinese shares also slipped, with the CSI 300 and the Shanghai Composite indices both down 0.7 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng slid 0.4 percent.

Chinese dollar-denominated exports declined 4.1 percent in May from a year earlier, compared with the expected drop of 3.6 percent. Imports fell 0.4 percent, less than the expected 6 percent. China's trade surplus is forecast to hit $50 billion in May.

On Wall Street, the U.S. S&P 500 Index rose 0.1 percent to 2,112, less than 20 points away from its record closing high marked in May last year.

The advance was led by 2.1 percent gains in energy shares as oil prices jumped more than 1 percent to hit 2016 highs on expectations of domestic stockpile draws and worries about supply shortfalls from attacks on Nigeria's oil industry.

A report by trade group American Petroleum Institute (API), released after Tuesday's close showed a crude draw of 3.6 million barrels, larger than expectations of 2.7 million barrels, supporting the market.

U.S. crude futures rose 0.1 percent to $50.43 per barrel, near its Tuesday high of $50.53, a level last seen in October.

Global benchmark Brent futures was little changed at $51.47, close to the eight-month high of $51.55 per barrel hit earlier in the session.

Investors further trimmed expectations of Fed rate hikes as they assessed Friday's employment report that showed new hires sharply dropped in May.

Data published on Tuesday confirmed U.S. nonfarm productivity fell in the first quarter on a surge in labor-related costs, suggesting companies may have had to slow hiring after their hiring earlier this year outpaced revenue growth.

"Output is not increasing as much as an increase in employment, hence we have a fall in productivity," said Shuji Shirota, head of macroeconomic strategy at HSBC Securities. "If employment stops increasing and we still have no growth in productivity, that would be a worrying sign."

The 10-year U.S. Treasuries yield was last at 1.7108, after falling back to 1.713 percent overnight, testing strong support at around 1.70 percent.

In Europe, German bond yields hit a record low of 0.045 percent on Tuesday as investors sought a safe haven ahead of Britain's referendum on EU membership.

The British pound was off Monday's three-week low but remained volatile. It traded at $1.4542, compared with Monday's low of $1.4352.

The dollar also licked its wounds near four-week lows after the job data quashed expectations of a Fed rate hike in the next couple of months.

The dollar index stood at 93.732, the lowest level in almost a month.

The euro gained 0.1 percent to $1.13690 while the yen rose 0.6 percent to 106.735 per dollar.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com