Citigroup names Jane Fraser as first woman CEO

rfi.fr – AFP, 10/09/2020

Citigroup named Jane Fraser as its next CEO, replacing Michael Corbat who
will retire in February Julian R. Photography/AFP

New York (AFP) - Citigroup named Jane Fraser as its next chief executive on Thursday, tapping a woman to lead a giant Wall Street bank for the first time.

She will take over the top job in February, replacing Michael Corbat who will retire.

Fraser, who has served as president and CEO of global consumer banking since 2019, will join the board of directors immediately, the bank said. She has held prior roles for Citi in Latin America and in investment banking.

"I am honored by the Board's decision and grateful to Mike for his leadership and support," Fraser said in a press release.

"Our balance sheet is strong and our commitment to serving our clients and communities is even stronger. I will do everything I can to make all our stakeholders proud of our firm as we continue to build a better bank and improve our returns."

The move comes as Citi pivots to a more challenging operating environment as large banks set aside billions of dollars to prepare for bad loans due to the coronavirus.

Other women have become CEOs of big financial companies or in related industries, such as Abigail Johnson at Fidelity Investments and Julie Sweet at Accenture. But in taking the helm of the fourth-biggest US bank by assets, Fraser joins a group of Wall Street CEOs that until now has been exclusively led by white men.

Her appointment to the top job had been telegraphed from her prior promotion in October 2019 to president and head of global consumer banking. Senior women at JPMorgan Chase are also in line to potentially take the top job to succeed Jamie Dimon, who is expected to retire in the coming years.

Corporate America is also under scrutiny over the paltry number of Black leaders in the wake of massive racial justice protests this year.

Industry faces headwinds

After stumbling badly during the subprime mortgage crisis, Citigroup recovered in the ensuing decade after the 2008 financial crisis.

From 2012 to 2019, the banking giant saw net income rise from $7 billion to $20 billion, Corbat said in the press release.

"We went from returning hardly any capital to returning nearly $80 billion in capital to our shareholders over the last six years," he said.

The improvement coincided with a post-2008 US economic expansion that ended abruptly with the coronavirus outbreak.

In the most recent quarter, Citigroup added $5.6 billion in reserves for bad loans, a factor in a 73 percent drop in profits to $1.3 billion. Large banks are also staring at a lengthy period of low interest rates, putting a damper on another source of profits.

"The pandemic has a grip on the economy and it doesn't seem likely to loosen until vaccines are widely available," Corbat said on a conference call with analysts.

The Scottish-born Fraser joined Citi in 2004 after earlier roles at Goldman Sachs and McKinsey & Company. She has spoken openly about being a working mother in finance, recounting in 2016 how she worked part-time at McKinsey.

Having children "humanized me," Fraser said in the 2016 appearance at the Americas Society. "There is nothing like having children to help you understand where your priorities are."

Fraser also recounted her sometimes unorthodox career moves, such as exiting as head of the private bank in London in 2013 to oversee a turnaround of the mortgage business from St. Louis, Missouri in the midwest of the United States.

"Everyone thought I was completely nuts," she said. "I knew I would grow. I knew I would a learn a completely different skill set."

Shares of Citigroup were flat at $51.41 in late-morning trading.

The Netherlands overtakes Switzerland in world competitiveness stakes

DutchNews, May 24, 2018

The Netherlands has overtaken Switzerland and moved into fourth place in the latest global competitiveness rankings published by IMD. 

The top five most competitive economies in the world remain the same as in the previous year, but their order changed in the 2018 rankings. The United States, third last year, returns to the top spot, followed by Hong Kong, Singapore, the Netherlands and Switzerland. 

The Netherlands’ advance reflects a ‘balanced’ path to competitiveness, ranking in the top 10 in economic performance, government and business efficiency, IMD said. Switzerland declined mainly due to a slowdown in exports and, to a lesser extent, an increase in perceptions about threats of relocation of R&D facilities. 

The IMD World Competitiveness Center, a research group at IMD business school in Switzerland, has published the rankings every year since 1989. It compiles them using 258 indicators.

‘Hard’ data such as national employment and trade statistics are weighted twice as much as the ‘soft’ data from an executive opinion survey that measures the business perception of issues such as corruption, environmental concerns and quality of life. This year 63 countries were ranked. 

The Netherlands is also currently ranked 4th on the World Economic Forum‘s list of the 138 most competitive countries, behind Switzerland, the United States and Singapore.

KPK to Follow Up FBI's Allegations of Bribery at MAXpower

Jakarta Globe, Fana Suparman, October 03, 2016

A miniature of the Lontar power plant in Banten. (Antara Photo/Yudhi Mahatma)

Jakarta. Indonesian anti-graft agency KPK said it will follow up on initial reports from the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation that power plant builder MAXpower had allegedly paid bribes to Indonesian officials to secure government contracts.

"We will look at the FBI investigation. If we find the alleged flow of cash to government officials in Indonesia, we will follow up the case," Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairman Alexander Marwata told reporters in Jakarta on Monday (03/10).

Alexander's comment came after reports arose that London-based bank Standard Chartered was investigated by the US Department of Justice over claims that its Indonesian power plant builder subsidiary MAXpower had paid bribes to secure contracts in Indonesia.

The Wall Street Journal newspaper reported an internal audit of the MAXpower Group had revealed evidence of possible bribery and US prosecutors were examining whether Standard Chartered was culpable for not stopping it.

The reports showed indications that MAXpower made inappropriate payments to Indonesian government officials between 2012 and 2015.

"We definitely will cooperate with the FBI. According to the UNCAC [United Nations Convention against Corruption], all countries must cooperate to eradicate corruption," Alexander said.

Alexander pointed out that the KPK already has experiences handling corruption cases involving multinational companies, including a case involving Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician Emir Moeis who was jailed for taking $357,000 in bribes from Alstom Power, an American subsidiary of its French parent company, and Japan-based Marubeni Corporation.

"We will process this case the same way we brought Emir Moeis and former Pertamina director Suroso, who also took bribes from multinational companies, to justice," Alexander said.

Responding to the allegations, MAXpower claimed they gave a "one-sided and partial view of the operations and events at the firm and as such do not give a full, or true view.”

Under a deferred prosecution agreement it reached with US authorities in 2012, Standard Chartered is due to remain under supervision by an independent monitor until the end of 2017.

Why few Americans appear in the Panama Papers

Yahoo –AFP, Jeremy Tordjman, April 8, 2016

Issues of the German daily "Sueddeutsche Zeitung" featuring the "Panama Papers"
 with illustrations by German artist Peter M Hoffmann depicting heads of state
(AFP Photo/Christof Stache)

Washington (AFP) - From Russia to China, and Britain to Iceland, the revelations of the "Panama Papers" have tarnished officials and the wealthy over the implication that they hide riches offshore.

But one group is not there: prominent Americans. US tycoons and politicians are notably absent in the leaked files of the Panama law offices of Mossack Fonseca, which created thousands of shell companies worldwide to hide the identities of their ultimate owners, some of whom may have been evading taxes.

There is Hollywood mogul David Geffen, the Asylum Records and Dreamworks SKG co-founder. But there are no Americans comparable to Iceland's prime minister, or henchmen of the Russian president -- all in the Panama records -- at least in what has been disclosed so far.

"There are a lot of Americans, but they are more like private citizens," said Marina Walker Guevara, deputy director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists which coordinated the investigation and release of the Panama Papers.

However, that hardly means Americans have fully embraced financial transparency, she told AFP.

"It doesn't show that the US is outside of the offshore system; the US is actually a big player."

The Tax Justice Network's Financial Secrecy Index (AFP Photo/Alain

Bommenel, Jean Michel Cornu)

Other options

One possible reason for their small presence in the Panama documents is that US citizens hoping to hide funds and activities offshore were not drawn to Spanish-speaking Panama as a haven, when there are options like the British Virgin islands and the Cayman Islands.

"Americans have so many tax havens to choose from," said Nicholas Shaxson, author of "Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men who Stole the World," a 2011 book on secretive centers for hiding money.

Indeed, Americans do not have to go abroad to hide funds and activities behind anonymous corporations: they can create them at home.

States like Delaware and Wyoming allow the creation of such companies, for just a few hundred dollars, that conceal their ultimate financial beneficiary.

And while US banks are normally required to "know their customers," they can bypass that rule and open accounts for shell companies, ensuring total discretion for someone who wants to move money around quietly.

The US Treasury is moving to stop the practice, which can be used by arms and drug traffickers to launder funds and lands the United States in third in the Tax Justice Network's ranking of the world's least transparent countries, well above Panama.

"We're in the last stages of drafting the final rule," a Treasury official told AFP.

The most popular tax havens (AFP Photo/Laurence Saubadu, Jonathan Jacobsen)

'Very frightened'

But there is another possible reason that Americans are not so visible in the Panama Papers.

Spurred by the need to halt huge, blatant tax evasion by Americans using foreign banks, Washington in recent years has cracked down with lawsuits, arrests and tighter laws that have targeted both the banks offering safe haven and those hiding money in them.

Swiss banks were hit in particular. UBS and Credit Suisse, respectively, had to pay fines of $780 million and $2.6 billion for having helped US citizens hide money.

The result, Shaxson said, is that now "there are a few tax havens around the world that are very frightened of American clients, because they know that the US can hit them."

Nevertheless, the seeming absence of Americans from the Panama Papers has fed conspiracy theories, such as claims the leak of the files was orchestrated by the CIA to destabilize Russia and other countries.

But Walker Guevara said there is still a lot to be examined in the trove of 11.5 million documents that make up the Panama Papers, and there could be more about Americans in there.

"It's a huge trove of documents and maybe there's something hiding there that we haven't found yet. It's a work in progress."

"@USTreasury has taken new action to prevent more corporations from taking advantage of one of the most insidious tax loopholes" —@POTUS

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 5, 2016

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Big Tobacco Dangles Big Bucks – but at a High Costi

Jakarta Globe, Basten Gokkon, October 22, 2015

Indonesia, where two-thirds of the adult male population smokes and two-fifths
of boys aged 13 to 15 also puff, remains one of the few bright spots for international
tobacco companies amid crackdowns by governments the world over.
 (EPA Photo/Stephen Morrison)

Jakarta. Tobacco control activists have urged the Indonesian government to turn down a $2 billion investment plan from one of the world’s biggest tobacco companies, citing public health concerns.

President Joko Widodo is scheduled to visit the United States next week where he will sign several agreements with the US government and American businesses, among them Philip Morris International, which has a 98 percent stake in H.M. Sampoerna, Indonesia’s biggest cigarette maker.

The deal with PMI will reportedly see the tobacco company invest $2 billion in Indonesia.

There has been no official word on what the money will go toward, but a confidential letter from Foreign Minister Retno L.P. Marsudi to President Joko Widodo, obtained by the Jakarta Globe, states that $500 million will be in the form of capital expenditure for H.M. Sampoerna.

The remaining $1.5 billion, the letter indicates, will apparently be raised through a share divestment, with proceeds going to the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) and the Health Ministry – the very same government institution tasked with enforcing tobacco-control measures.

Health Minister Nila F. Moeloek is known to be among the officials joining Joko when he kicks off his US trip this Sunday.

Neither the minister nor a spokesperson for the Health Ministry were immediately available for comment on the reported funding from the tobacco company. The Globe was unable to reach any PMI officials for comment.

‘Poisoning Indonesians’

Kartono Mohamad, the chairman of the government-funded National Commission on Tobacco Control (NCTC), said any investment by PMI in Indonesia would do more harm than good over the long term.

“Accepting the investment offer from Philip Morris means the president is poisoning Indonesians and selling out public health over mere investment,” he told the Globe.

Indonesia, where two-thirds of the adult male population smokes and two-fifths of boys aged 13 to 15 also puff, remains one of the few bright spots for international tobacco companies amid crackdowns by governments the world over. It is the only country in the Asia-Pacific region that has yet to sign the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

PMI’s global net revenue in 2014 was $8.7 billion, down 16.9 percent from the previous year, and with countries in the region, such as Australia and Malaysia, tightening controls on tobacco sales and marketing, there is more of an incentive than ever for big tobacco to invest in Indonesia, Kartono said.

“Once Philip Morris has planted its $2 billion here, it will certainly look for a profit, and so long it still sees the benefits, we won’t be able to oust it from the country,” he said.

No political will

The government has shown little political will to act tough on cigarette sales and advertising, including to children. Last month the House of Representatives announced plans to recognize kretek, the traditional Indonesian clove-flavored cigarette, as an item if cultural heritage – thereby making it harder for the government to impose restrictions on kretek sales and advertising, and in fact obliging the state to support the manufacture and promotion of the cancer sticks.

Kartono said any measure to support the tobacco industry would have a massive public-health impact. The death toll from smoking-related illnesses in 2010, the last time the Health Ministry carried out such a census, was 190,000, and a surge in smoking-related ailments will stress an already overburdened public health infrastructure, Kartono warned.

“When a smoker gets sick, who will pay for the treatment? Certainly not Philip Morris,” he said.

He argued that most smokers would rely on the government’s BPJS Kesehatan health insurance program, which is already Rp 5 trillion ($369 million) in deficit despite only being launched earlier this year with Rp 21 trillion in state funding.

Targeting the young

“The meeting with Philip Morris will not help develop the nation and its people, but instead destroy the future of Indonesians,” said Hery Chariansyah, the executive director of Lentera Anak Indonesia, an NGO that advocates for child-friendly government policies.

He said tobacco companies in general tended to target young people, and that in Indonesia’s case this could have a devastating effect because the country’s demographic skews under 30.

“Any business-related agreement led by the government must prioritize the welfare of the people and the nation. And the meeting with Philip Morris definitely doesn’t do this,” Hery said.

He also noted that in 2009, 2010 and 2011, PMI had lobbied the House to prioritize deliberation of a contentious bill on the tobacco industry, on the pretext that it was meant to protect the interests of tobacco farmers.

With the planned signing of the $2 billion investment, and a trip to the United States last month by Indonesian legislators during which House Speaker Setya Novanto met with executives from PMI, Hery said it appeared almost certain that the bill would finally go to the House floor this time around.

Workers at risk

The tobacco lobby in Indonesia has long thwarted any attempt to more stringently regulate cigarette sales and advertising by claiming that those who would suffer the most would be the tens of thousands of Indonesians employed in cigarette factories.

The reality, however, is that greater investment in factory automation – including a transition from hand-rolled kretek production to a machine-rolled process at an H.M. Sampoerna factory in Karawang, West Java – is having the same effect of putting workers out of a job, Hery said.

According to filings, PMI’s operating profit from Asia plunged 31 percent to $3.2 billion in 2014 from the previous year, due to higher manufacturing costs, primarily in Indonesia.

With half a billion dollars in capital expenditure expected for H.M. Sampoerna, Hery warned of “even more tobacco industry workers getting fired.”

‘Blinded by cash’

Kartono of the NCTC said he was optimistic that Joko would reject PMI’s investment offer, but also warned that the president’s advisers could cloud his judgment.

“Hopefully Jokowi will not be blinded by the amount of cash being offered and fall into this investment trap set by Philip Morris,” he said.

A spokesman for the president did not respond to requests for comment from the Globe.

Related Article:

Johan Cruijff confirms lung cancer diagnosis

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

" ... The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. ..."

Humble Pie for Home Minister After Controversial Bid to Gag Foreign Pressi

Jakarta Globe, 27 Aug 2015

Home Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo, left, has apologized to President 

Joko Widodo for a brazen attempt to curtail press freedoms. (Antara 

Photo/Andika Wahyu)

Jakarta. Home Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo has apologized for and withdrawn a regulation aimed at increasing government control over foreign journalists operating in Indonesia, following a public outcry over the move.

“I’ve apologized to the president by telephone and immediately rescinded the internal regulation that was sent to regional governments which could have led to misunderstandings,” Tjahjo, from President Joko Widodo’s Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said late on Thursday.

“I as the minister am at fault … I was wrong,” he added. “I’ve also explained this openly to the foreign minister and to the press.”

The regulation in question, a circular sent out to regional administrations nationwide, demanded that foreign journalists and their local crew have permits issued by the Foreign Affairs and the Home Affairs Ministries. It also obliged foreign journalists to report their activities and acquire permits from all relevant levels of government, from the municipal or district level to the provincial level.

“The letter clearly implies disobedience of a president who is open to foreign coverage, as well as suspicion of the press and civilians,” Poengky Indarti, executive director of the rights group Imparsial, said on Thursday. “It will also lead to less investment and tourism income.

“Imparsial urges the Home Affairs Ministry to revoke the circular as it goes against President Joko Widodo’s position of welcoming foreign journalists covering Papua and other regions in the country,” she added.

Joko announced last May a lifting of restrictions on foreign  journalists reporting from Papua, saying he wanted to end the misinformation about the restive province by granting full access to outside media.

The Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club also took issue with Tjajho’s circular, saying in a statement that the “continuation and expansion of restrictive state policies on visiting journalists is a sad reminder of the authoritarian Suharto regime, and a stain on Indonesia’s transition to democracy and claims by its government that it supports a free press and human rights.”

The JFCC statement added that it found the new requirements “particularly troubling given that the Indonesian government already takes weeks if not months to issue approvals for foreign journalists and film crews to visit Indonesia to work – if at all.”

Raising the issue of "whether the Ministry of Home Affairs understands or heeds orders from the Presidential Palace,” the JFCC also called on the US government to make freedom of the press “a primary topic of conversation” during the planned state visit of Joko to the US, at the invitation of President Barack Obama.

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Uber Is ‘Stealing Money’ Through Unregulated Operations, Basuki Says

Jakarta Globe, Deti Mega Purnamasari, Jun 26, 2015

Uber is not welcome in Jakarta unless it sets up a proper office in the country and

 abides by prevailing public transportation regulations, the governor say. (Reuters

Photo/Charles Platiau)

Jakarta. Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama said he would have a meeting with representatives from California-based ride-sharing app Uber only if the company promised to set up an office in the country.

“If they had wanted to meet me [to seek permission] from the beginning, then I would have done it. But now, if they wish to have a meeting with me, they must establish a company [here],” Basuki said at City Hall on Friday.

He added that representatives from the parent company, Uber Technologies, had spoken to him in person inquiring why they were banned from operating in the city.

Uber’s Jakarta operations currently run from a rented office space at the Pacific Place mall in the Sudirman Central Business District, South Jakarta.

Basuki claimed that Uber reaped profits of up to 20 percent from its operations in the city but did not pay any tax.

“They are stealing money in my area,” he said.

Shortly after its launch in Jakarta last August, Basuki branded Uber “illegal.”

Last week, the Jakarta Police arrested five drivers using the Uber app after receiving reports from the city’s transportation agency and the Organization of Land Transport Operators, or Organda.

The police said the five drivers would only be questioned as witnesses not as suspects.

The arrests mark the latest in a series of legal and regulatory speedbumps for Uber Technologies, which is already facing multiple lawsuits around the globe for bypassing industry regulations.

US Companies Eying More Than $1b Investment in Indonesia

Jakarta Globe, Arientha Primanita, May 04, 2015

Workers clean the windows of an office building in Central Jakarta on
April 23, 2015. (Antara Photo/Andika Wahyu)

Jakarta. A delegation of top executives from 10 major US companies arrived in Jakarta on Monday, as they seek to forge stronger business relationships in Indonesia and are collectively considering more than $1 billion in new investment over the next three to five years.

US-Asean Business council, the organizer of the visit, said in a statement on Monday that the envoy is scheduled to meet government officials and business leaders in Indonesia — including President Joko Widodo; the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Sofyan Djlail; and chairman of the Indonesian Investment Coordination Board (BKPM) Franky Sibarani.

They are also scheduled to meet Lim Hong Hin deputy secretary general if the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations; the chairman of the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo), Hariyadi Sukamdani; and senior leaders of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce (Kadin).

The delegation includes companies from Ace Group, Cigna, the Coca-Cola Company, DuPont, Intel, Medtronic, Monsanto, and Procter & Gamble, of which all have a business presence in Indonesia.

“The companies on the delegation have substantial investments in Indonesia which support millions of jobs, and are collectively planning or considering more than $1 billion in new investment in the next 3-5 years,” US-Asean Business council said in the statement.

Most of the US investment in Indonesia has been from large oil and gas exploration firms such as Chevron and ExxonMobil, and diversity of investment into other sectors from US companies in the Indonesian economy has been small by comparison.

March Mealy, vice president for Policy at the US-Asean Business Council, praised Joko’s administration for its impressive slate of economic reform achievements in the first semester since taking office.

He said Joko’s economic policies — such as the fuel subsidy reduction; a one-stop shop for licensing launched in January; and the revised State Budget for 2015 that gave room for more infrastructure and social spending — made notable differences in the business environment.

“We look forward to continuing to work together on other key issue areas to enhance the domestic business environment and unleash Indonesia’s full trade and investment potential,” Mealy said in the statement.

Prakash Mallya, managing director for Southeast Asia at Intel, said the company believes that technology is the great equalizer leading to positive impacts for businesses, people and society.

“As Indonesia embarks its journey on a new economic frontier, Intel together with US-Asean Business Council is committed to accelerate key government programs on e-education, e-government, e-health, e-logistic, e-procurement as well as overall implementation of National Broadband Plan,” he said.

The companies of the US-Asean Business Council also gave their support for regional integration through the Asean Economic Community set to launch at the end of this year.

Patrick Graham, chief executive officer of the Asia-Pacific region for insurance company Cigna, said that companies are willing to enable greater regional connectivity and integration to build sustainable business, communities and governments that meet the challenging needs and opportunities present in the region.

“I am confident that this Mission will bring to the forefront the key priorities of the private sector to key leaders in the region and set the stage for even more fruitful partnerships and engagement in years to come,” Graham said

GlobeAsia

US 'screwed up' handling of AIIB, says Albright

Want China Times, Xinhua 2015-04-01

Madeleine Albright addresses the Senate Armed Forces Committee on
Jan. 29, 2015. (File photo/Xinhua)

The United State has "screwed up" on its way to deal with the China-proposed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright said on Tuesday.

One of the motives for China to initiate the AIIB was that the US Congress held up the voting share reform in the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other international institutions, Albright said at an event held by the Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

As China and other countries have been questioning Washington's excessive dominance in international institutions, the US executive branch has proposed to Congress to try to adjust some of the voting share in the World Bank and IMF, in some way to ensure more equitable voting shares, but Congress has delayed to ratify such a reform. "I think there has been certain amount of frustration (from China and other countries) about that," Albright said.

According to the former secretary of state, the AIIB should not be seen as some kind of Chinese power grab, but an opportunity for the US to be able to put forward ideas on transparency and regulatory issues.

The US Treasury secretary, Jacob Lew, said recently that emerging and developed economies alike are looking to other alternatives as a means of driving the global system forward, as the international community waits for Congress to approve these reforms.

Also on Tuesday, Lew made it clear that the US stands ready to welcome the AIIB as it complements existing international financial institutions and upholds high standards.

The AIIB, expected to be formally established by the end of 2015, will be an international financial institution to fund infrastructure projects in Asia. China confirmed on Tuesday that 30 countries have been approved as prospective founding members of the bank.

US President Barack Obama, left, poses with Chinese President Xi Jinping as

 he arrives for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders meeting at Yanqi

Lake, north of Beijing on Nov. 11, 2014. (AFP Photo/Greg Baker)

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"The Timing of the Great Shift" – Mar 21, 2009 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“… Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013. They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader. Remember where you heard it... in a strange, esoteric meeting with a guy in a chair pretending to channel. [Kryon being factious... Kryon humor] Then when you hear it, you'll know better, won't you? "Maybe there was something really there," you'll say. "Maybe it was real," you'll say. Perhaps you can skip all the drama of the years to come and consider that now? [Kryon humor again]

These leaders are going to fall over. You'll have a slow developing leadership coming to you all over the earth where there is a new energy of caring about the public. "That's just too much to ask for in politics, Kryon." Watch for it. That's just the beginning of this last phase. So many things are coming. The next one is related to this, for a country in survival with sickness cannot sustain a leadership of high consciousness. There is just too much opportunity for power and greed. But when a continent is healed, everything changes. .."

".. Many years ago, the prevailing thought was that nobody should consider China as a viable player on the economic stage. They were backward, filled with a system that would never be westernized, and had no wish to become joined with the rest of the world's economic systems. Look what has happened in only 30 years. Now, look at Africa differently …”

Why Bloomberg Loves Indonesia

Double-Digit Reasons: Financial news provider tight-lipped on its domestic growth figures

Jakarta Globe, Dion Bisara, Mar 26, 2015

File photo of Bloomberg chairman Peter T. Grauer taken in 2012. He met with GlobeAsia again in an interview on March 26, 2015. He said the company had expanded its news footprint in Indonesia ‘a little bit’ to better cover news, data and analysis ‘on Indonesia and from Indonesians,’ an investment that has reaped ‘solid double-digit growth.’ (GA Photo)

Jakarta. Bloomberg, the world’s biggest provider of financial data and news, is reaping the benefit of it expansion in Indonesia in the past three years, having seen its business grow by double digits with more banks, mutual funds and corporate treasuries signing up for its dealing platform.

Bloomberg Business News grew by more than 12 percent last year, with an average of double-digit growth over the last 10 years, according to company data.

Bloomberg chairman Peter T. Grauer told GlobeAsia in an interview on Thursday that the company remained upbeat about the growth potential in Indonesia.

“The areas we’ve been particularly focused on here revolve around the mutual fund market, [and] we [are] quite proactive with our Instant Bloomberg Dealing platform in the forex market,” he said.

“We have expanded our news footprint a little bit so we can cover local news better, and we’ve seen benefits from that investment in seeing solid double-digit growth in our business here.”

The company launched Instant Bloomberg Dealing, a chat-based platform for foreign exchange traders, in 2013, and more than 40 local banks have signed up for foreign exchange and money market trading.

They join more than 100 global banks across 46 countries that use the platform for trade negotiations, execution and processing.

The instant dealing platform complemented Bloomberg Fxgo, a multi-bank trading platform offering commission-free electronic foreign exchange trading.

“We are seeing that as Indonesia’s economy continues to grow, so does the market for news, data and analysis on Indonesia and from Indonesians,” Grauer said.

Bloomberg added 5,660 desktop terminals last year, reaching a global installed base of 324,399, putting the company’s 2014 financial market revenue at an estimated $8.5 billion per year, according to a report from business market researcher Burton-Taylor International Consulting.

Bloomberg said that 18 percent of its revenue came from Asia. No specific data for Indonesia on terminal subscriptions, market share or revenue was given.

Bloomberg is the market leader in providing global financial market data services, with 32 percent market share last year, followed by Thompson Reuters at 26 percent.

Grauer was in Jakarta for a 24-hour visit on Thursday to attend the second annual Indonesian Fund Managers Association (Aprdi)-Bloomberg Indonesia Fund Awards to recognize the nation’s best mutual funds — “one of the key markets for Bloomberg in Indonesia,” Grauer said.

The country’s mutual fund assets under management grew by 19 percent last year to Rp 228 trillion ($17.5 billion).

Grauer said that Bloomberg remained committed to providing financial education, setting up the Bloomberg terminal in classrooms at nearly 800 universities and business schools worldwide.

In Indonesia, schools including Prasetiya Mulya Business School, the University of Indonesia, Gadjah Mada University and Diponegoro University are installing Bloomberg terminals to simulate real-world trading environments for their students.

GlobeAsia subscribes to the Bloomberg news service and terminal.

GlobeAsia

Asia-Pacific ministers pledge to step up graft fight

Yahoo – AFP, 8 Nov 2014

Visitors walk past a sign promoting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation

(APEC) summit in Beijing on November 8, 2104 (AFP Photo/Wang Zhao)

Beijing (AFP) - China secured backing from Asia-Pacific ministers Saturday to deepen anti-graft efforts, in a move that dovetails with a high-profile Communist Party "fox hunt" for corrupt officials who have fled abroad.

The anti-corruption proposal is said to have been pushed by China and backed by the United States at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gathering in Beijing, which culminates in a two-day summit of leaders from 21 member-economies starting Monday.

China's President Xi Jinping speaks to 

other leaders at a meeting on the

 sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic

 Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Beijing

 on November 8, 2014 (AFP Photo/Kim

Kyung-Hoon)

US Secretary of State John Kerry hailed the moved as a "major step forward" in combatting graft.

"Corruption not only creates an unfair playing field, it not only distorts economic relationships, but corruption also steals from the people of every country the belief that the system can work for everybody," he told reporters in Beijing.

But it remained unclear how effective the move would be, amid apprehension in some countries over returning suspects to China due to fears they could be subject to abuse and denied legal due process.

China in July launched its so-called "Fox Hunt" -- a campaign to bring back corrupt officials or their family members who have moved abroad, taking ill-gotten gains with them.

Since taking office last year, President Xi Jinping has made the graft fight a central theme of his administration as public anger swells over widespread corruption.

A report attributed to China's central bank and leaked three years ago said that as many as 18,000 corrupt officials had left the country between the 1990s and 2008, taking as much as $123 billion with them.

'Deny safe haven'

In a statement, APEC ministers pledged to step up nascent anti-corruption efforts with a regional commitment to "deny safe haven to those engaged in corruption, including through extradition".

Regional leaders gather in Beijing on November 8, 2014 for the Asia-Pacific 

Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in the Chinese capital (AFP Photo/

Kim Kyung-Hoon)

But they stressed that such moves would be "subject to domestic laws and policies" and needed to be carried out "in accordance with fundamental legal principles of each economy".

"We, APEC member economies, recognise that corruption impedes economic sustainability and development, threatens social security and fairness, undermines the rule of law, and erodes government accountability, as well as public trust," the statement said.

It pledged to establish an office for the day-to-day running of the APEC Network of Anti-Corruption Authorities and Law Enforcement Agencies (ACT-NET), a body coordinating anti-corruption efforts that was launched by Chinese and US officials in August.

The office will "assist in detecting, investigating and prosecuting corruption, bribery, money laundering, and illicit trade" and seek cooperation on tracking cases across borders.

China has recently announced stepped-up efforts to extradite former officials suspected of corruption from countries including Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

China's President Xi Jinping (C) speaks to

 other leaders attending the Dialogue On 

Strengthening Connectivity Partnership in

 Beijing on November 8, 2014 (AFP Photo/

Kim Kyung-Hoon)

Australian police said last month that they would work with their Chinese counterparts to track down and seize illegal assets, but foreign concerns over the country's legal system linger.

Anti-corruption efforts with the ruling Communist Party are carried out by an internal body which operates without any legal oversight, and there is concern that the crackdown may be used for political faction-fighting.

APEC Secretariat Executive Director Alan Bollard said Thursday the proposal had been championed by China and the United States.

Bollard said any anti-corruption effort "needs to happen within the different laws and legal structures" of APEC members, but the statement did not spell out how this would work.

"Corruption impedes economic sustainability and development, threatens social security and fairness," the ministers added.

Related Article:

Upgraded anti-graft office to catch more crooked Chinese officials