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https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40002573

U.K. regulator cracks down on Binance, the worlds biggest cryptocurrency exchange

A top financial regulator in Britain has ordered Binance, the worlds biggest cryptocurrency exchange, to cease regulated activity in the country, the latest effort by a world government to limit crypto-related businesses.

The Financial Conduct Authority followed its prohibitions on Binance Markets Limited with a warning to consumers to be wary of advertisements “promising high returns on investments in cryptoasset or cryptoasset-related products.” The move mirrors that of Japan, where finance regulators last week notified Binance that it is not authorized to do business in the country.

The regulatory warning shots highlights the inherent tension surrounding digital currency, which is finding cachet with a growing number of new investors and even has it encounters skepticism from governments and legacy financial institutions due to its volatility and its use by malicious actors to facilitate crime.

The crypto market’s extreme volatility was on display last week, as hundreds of billions of dollars in value evaporated on news of China’s crackdown on bitcoin mining. But as of Monday afternoon, bitcoin was trading up 5%, around $34,0000, and the total cryptocurrency market stood at $1.4 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Consumers in the U.K. will still be able to use Binance for activities the FCA doesn’t regulate, such as buying and selling bitcoin. In an email to The Post, Binance said the FCA notice has “no direct impact” on the services provided on Binance.com

“We are aware of recent reports about an FCA UK notice in relation to Binance Markets Limited (BML). BML is a separate legal entity and does not offer any products or services via the Binance.com website,” Binance said in an email to The Post. “Binance acquired BML May 2020 and has not yet launched its UK business or used its FCA regulatory permissions. Our relationship with our users has not changed.”

The FCA has previously cautioned that scores of crypto companies that were seeking its approval could not meet requirements for preventing money laundering. The British financial watchdog named price volatility, consumer protection among its chief concerns about the cryptocurrency landscape, as well as charges and fees and misleading marketing materials.

“Investing in cryptoassets, or investments and lending linked to them, generally involves taking very high risks with investors’ money,” the FCA said in January. “If consumers invest in these types of product, they should be prepared to lose all their money.”

Binance, which according to its website hosts 2 billion trades a day, applied to register with the FCA but withdrew its application on May 17, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Just five crypto companies are currently registered with the FCA, including Gemini and Ziglu Limited, a British digital wallet company. The FCA recommends consumer withdraw their investments in unregistered assets or firms, as they are “operating illegally.”

Global adoption and investment in cryptocurrency isare rising just as some regulators are setting limitations and cracking down on crypto-related businesses. Others are grappling with how to design new rules to protect investors without stifling the potential for financial innovation.

In the U.S., the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission has called for a federal watchdog to oversee crypto exchanges – the platforms where people can buy and sell tokens – since no single market regulator has clear jurisdiction over them. “Right now the exchanges trading in these crypto assets do not have a regulatory framework, either at the SEC or our sister agency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission,” SEC Chair Gary Gensler told Congress last month.

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More recently, Biden administration officials have embarked on a review of potential oversight measures tied to the speculative trading of the crypto market and cryptocurrency’s potential uses to facilitate crime. Tax avoidance is another key issue that policymakers are focused on. The White House and the Treasury Department are backing a new plan to target cryptocurrency as part of a broader effort to ensure tax compliance.

While cryptocurrency investors in the U.S. can trade tokens and exchange them for cash, achieving some degree of mainstream adoption, investment vehicles offered through other types of assets are not yet widely available for digital currency. Some investment managers are seeking regulatory approval for bitcoin exchange traded funds, in an attempt to pull in additional investors similar to the way ETFs have broadened the appeal of investing in the stock market. Other financial services companies are seeking to place crypto alongside the basket of investments that comprise retirement plans.

Published : June 29, 2021

By : The Washington Post · Taylor Telford

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https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40002568

Big tech lifts stocks as reflation trade wanes

Some of the worlds largest technology companies led stocks to a fresh record on Monday, extending a rally thats already added $6 trillion in value to the equity market this year.

After swinging between gains and losses throughout most of the session, the S&P 500 moved higher on news that Facebook Inc. won dismissal of two monopoly lawsuits. Some of the stay-at-home darlings like Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Zoom Video Communications Inc. climbed as last week’s reflation trade waned. Cruise operators and airlines sank as governments from Europe to Asia imposed new limits on travel from Britain — which is seeing a spike in coronavirus cases.

With stocks on track for one of their best first halves in history, the debate over elevated valuations is coming back to the forefront. The S&P 500 is trading above the average of the past decade and this quarter potentially marking the peak of a profit recovery from the depths of the pandemic. Meantime, demand for protection against losses in coming months has risen in the options market.

“Investors should not be looking for stocks to move higher in a straight line, but rather prepare for the economic recovery taking shape,” John Stoltzfus, chief investment strategist at Oppenheimer, wrote to clients. “We look for progress, not perfection in the economic data this week, with the potential for any disappointments to give rise to volatility, and with results that are better than expected likely to provide positive offsets.”

Traders awaited a batch of economic reports due this week, with one of the highlights being the jobs reading on Friday, which is forecast to show an acceleration in payrolls growth in June.

These are some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

– The S&P 500 rose 0.2% as of 4 p.m. EDT

– The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.3%

– The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.4%

– The MSCI World index was little changed

Currencies

– The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1%

– The euro was little changed at $1.1925

– The British pound was little changed at $1.3874

– The Japanese yen rose 0.1% to 110.61 per dollar

Bonds

– The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined four basis points to 1.48%

– Germany’s 10-year yield declined four basis points to -0.19%

– Britain’s 10-year yield declined six basis points to 0.72%

Commodities

– West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.6% to $72.88 a barrel

– Gold futures were little changed

Published : June 29, 2021

By : Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Rita Nazareth, Vildana Hajric

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https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40002563

Thai economy slowed in May as resurgent virus sapped recovery

Economic indicators showed the Thai economy slowed in May from the previous month, after the third wave of Covid-19 emerged in April.

However, the economy continued to grow from the same period last year, driven by exports, the Finance Ministry’s Fiscal Policy Office (FPO) reported.

Private consumption in May expanded from the same period last year but slowed compared to the previous month. May’s Consumer Confidence Index also dropped to 44.7 from 46.0 in April, as worry over the resurgent virus trumped fresh government aid measures. However, private consumption was supported by real farm income that continued to expand at 12.5 per cent per year.

Exports also expanded by an 11-year high of 41.6 per cent from the same period last year.

Figures for tourism in May showed 6,052 arrivals on Special Tourist Visas (STVs), including businesspeople and Thailand Privilege Cardholders. Most were from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Asean, while domestic tourism grew by 140.2 per cent from last year’s low base.

The FPO said economic stability remained sound in May, although prices rose. This was reflected by the headline inflation rate of 2.4 per cent and the core inflation of 0.5 per cent.

Meanwhile, the public debt/GDP ratio at the end of April stood at 54.9 per cent, which is still within the statutory 60 per cent limit.

Thailand’s external stability remains stable, said the FPO, and can withstand risks from global economic volatility since international reserves were high at $251.8 billion at the end of May.

Published : June 29, 2021

By : The Nation

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https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40002561

SET dips again as new Covid restrictions come into force

The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index closed at 1,579.17 on Monday, down 3.50 points or 0.22 per cent. Transactions totalled THB68.83 billion with an index high of 1,581.34 and a low of 1,565.31.

In the morning session, Krungsri Securities forecast Monday’s index would fall to 1,570 points despite the US Federal Reserve signalling it was in no hurry to hike the interest rate, and the oil price continuing to rise.

It said the index would face pressure from the government’s move to impose new Covid-19 restrictions in Bangkok and 10 provinces from Monday, plus volatility of foreign fund flows.

The 10 stocks with the highest trade value today were AOT, BDMS, GUNKUL, KBANK, RCL, CHG, BCH, BANPU, KCE and SCGP.

Other Asian indices were mixed:

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Japan’s Nikkei Index closed at 29,048.02, down 18.16 points or 0.062 per cent.

China’s Shanghai SE Composite Index closed at 3,606.37, down 1.19 points or 0.033 per cent, while the Shenzhen SE Component Index closed at 15,150.17, up 146.32 points or 0.98 per cent.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed at 29,268.30, down 19.92 points or 0.068 per cent.

South Korea’s KOSPI closed at 3,301.89, down 0.95 points or 0.029 per cent.

Taiwan’s TAIEX closed at 17,590.97, up 87.98 points or 0.50 per cent.

Published : June 28, 2021

By : The Nation

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https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40002553

Suvarnabhumi to go digital next month as AOT works on upgrading six airports

Airports of Thailand (AOT) is working on digitizing six airports, starting with Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, in a bid to get ready for a potential influx of tourists once the world reopens next year.

“So far, AOT has developed the Greenfield system which allows passengers to use various services, such as check-in and baggage loading, via smartphone or automatic devices,” AOT president Nitinai Sirismatthakarn said on Monday.

He added that the new technology should be set up in six airports by next year, including Suvarnabhumi Airport, which should have the new system in place by July this year.

He added that the new system should be installed in Phuket International Airport by April or May next year.

“Passengers who do not have baggage can check-in via a kiosk at the airport or via the AOT smartphone application at home,” he said.

“If they need to load baggage, check-in counters will have a biometric system to verify passengers’ identity and they can load their luggage using the self-service baggage loader,” he said.

Nitinai added that airports will use a face recognition system to screen passengers instead of checking their ID cards.

He expects 73 million people, or at least half of the total

passengers before the Covid-19 era, to use these services next year.

“AOT will continue investing to support the return of tourists,” he said.

Nitinai reckoned that AOT will invest about 387 billion baht in the next 10 to 20 years, or twice the value of its total assets worth 180 billion baht.

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Published : June 28, 2021

By : The Nation

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https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40002545

Weakening baht sliding towards 32 to the dollar

The baht opened at 31.82 to the US dollar on Monday, weakening from Friday’s closing rate of 31.78.

The Thai currency is likely to move between 31.75 and 31.90 during the day and between 31.60 and 32.10 within this week, Krungthai Bank market strategist Poon Panichpibool said.

He said that the baht tended to weaken due to several factors – such as the dollar’s direction, and the funds flow of foreign investors in Thailand.

Poon predicted that the dollar would strengthen, if the US economy recovered more than observers expected, and Fed officials showed support for stricter fiscal measures.

Also, he added that the Covid-19 situation in Europe and Asia was another factor to support the dollar.

Regarding foreign investment, Poon said that the worsening Covid-19 crisis in Thailand had prompted foreign investors to sell their stocks, pressuring the baht to weaken. The market strategist said that the government must provide at least 500,000 jabs a day in order to make investors more confident in Thailand.

In addition, Poon said that JP Morgan had already changed the proportion of bonds in its Government Bond Index – Emerging Markets. “It was possible that foreign investors would sell their Thai bonds – worth around THB10 billion in total – in order to change their bond proportion,” he explained, adding that last week investors had sold THB4.3 billion worth of Thai bonds.

The important resistance for the baht is at 32 to the US dollar, Poon said.

Published : June 28, 2021

By : The Nation

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https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40002544

New Covid restrictions, volatile foreign funds flow dampen SET sentiment

The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index fell by 9.38 points, or 0.59 per cent, to 1,573.29 on Monday morning.

The SET Index closed at 1,582.67 on Friday, down 3.05 points or 0.19 per cent. Transactions totalled THB68.1 billion with an index high of 1,596.16 and a low of 1,577.63.

Krungsri Securities has forecast that the SET Index would fall to 1,570 points despite the US Federal Reserve signalling it was in no hurry to hike the interest rate, and oil price continuing to rise.

It said the index, instead, would be under pressure due to the government’s move to announce new restrictions to curb Covid-19 in Bangkok and 10 provinces, plus the volatility of foreign funds flow.

It recommended that investors buy:

▪︎ PTT, PTTEP and BANPU, which benefit from the rising oil price.

▪︎ HANA, KCE, TU and CPF, which benefit from the weakening baht.

▪︎ BCH, CHG, BDMS and CKP, whose second-quarter business turnover is expected to improve.

Published : June 28, 2021

By : The Nation

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https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40002540

Gold price flats in the morning trade

The price of gold in Thailand in the morning trade on Monday was unchanged from Saturdays close.

The Gold Traders Association report at 9.27am showed buying price of a gold bar at THB26,750 per baht weight and selling price THB26,850, while gold ornaments were priced at THB26,272.28 and THB27,350, respectively.

Published : June 28, 2021

By : The Nation

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https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40002497

Bipartisan infrastructure deal could make it harder for tax cheats to elude IRS

WASHINGTON – The bipartisan deal on new infrastructure spending that President Joe Biden reached this week with a group of moderate Democrats and Republicans in the Senate represents a significant achievement for the White House, and not only for the roughly $1 trillion it would direct to public works projects if passed into law.

The deal would also secure a boost in the budget of the Internal Revenue Service after a decade of cuts, which independent experts say is critical to ensuring businesses and the wealthiest Americans pay what they owe in taxes. As agreed, the deal would provide $40 billion in new funding for the IRS, which has seen its budget shrink by one-fifth between 2010 and 2018.

Though five moderate Republican senators signed off on the deal, its path is still uncertain in Congress, where there is strong GOP skepticism of the IRS. Republicans renewed their attacks on the agency this month after the investigative news outlet ProPublica published a story based on a vast trove of leaked confidential tax data for the richest Americans.

And the agreement for new funding is not expected to include new reporting requirements for banks, which the Biden administration has proposed in its effort to close the long-persistent “tax gap,” or the difference between the taxes that Americans owe and what they pay.

“What we don’t want is an over-intrusive IRS getting into small businesses and causing inappropriate burdens,” said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who helped secure the deal, in describing what Republicans were trying to prevent as part of their agreement on IRS enforcement.

IRS funding from Congress fell 20% in inflation-adjusted dollars between 2010 and 2018, according to a report last year by the Congressional Budget Office. The cuts resulted in a 22% decline in the number of IRS staff.

The number of employees in the enforcement division – the part of the IRS that goes after unpaid taxes – declined by 30%, with even steeper drops among the highly specialized workers who handle the most complex cases.

As a result of the cuts, the number of IRS examinations dropped by 40% between 2010 and 2018, even as the number of tax returns filed increased by 5 percent, the CBO found. The audit rate for returns with more than $1 million in income dropped even further, by 63%. And while nearly all corporations with assets of $20 billion or more were audited in 2010, just half were audited in 2018, the CBO found.

“The big corporations and the wealthiest taxpayers can take advantage of a very complicated tax code and take very aggressive positions . . . and the IRS cannot dispute them,” said Janet Holtzblatt, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center. “The IRS with its depleted resources is not in a strong position to dispute the argument that this is avoidance and not evasion.”

Nina Olson, executive director of the Center for Taxpayer Rights and the former U.S. National Taxpayer Advocate, said the IRS needs “significant resources” to improve its employees’ skills and modernize its technology.

“There is no doubt in my mind that the IRS needs sustained investment,” Olson said. “The way that the IRS approaches enforcement now and compliance now is mired in the 20th century.”

The IRS budget cuts over the past decade were driven primarily by congressional Republicans, stemming in part from the agency’s crucial role in enacting the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama’s landmark domestic legislative achievement. GOP hostility toward the IRS mounted further in 2013 when an IRS watchdog alleged that the agency had targeted nonprofits affiliated with the tea party and other right-leaning groups for scrutiny.

But over the last few years, Republicans and Democrats alike have expressed concern about the extent of cuts to the IRS. Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in his confirmation hearing in 2017 that the IRS was “under-resourced to perform its duties,” and IRS commissioner Charles Rettig, a Trump appointee, said in Senate testimony this month that “budget cuts over the past decade have resulted in an agency that lacks the capacity to address sophisticated tax evasion efforts.”

In particular, bipartisan concern has coalesced around the tax gap. In part, that is because narrowing the gap is a way to increase government revenue that would not rely on higher tax rates, which conservatives oppose. The most recent IRS research available put the annual tax gap between 2011 and 2013 at $441 billion, and a Treasury Department analysis used that figure to extrapolate forward, putting the 2019 gap at $584 billion.

“There’s just a ton of money out there that we’re not collecting,” said Charles Rossotti, a former IRS commissioner who has put forward a plan to shrink the tax gap, much of which is reflected in the Biden administration’s proposal. “Why don’t we collect some of that before we raise taxes on the people that are already paying?”

But while the extra funding agreed in the bipartisan deal will help the IRS increase revenue, it would barely make a dent in the tax gap. The CBO’s estimate, which assumes no significant changes in reporting requirements, shows that an additional $20 billion in IRS funding for examinations and collections over a decade would bring in an additional $61 billion in revenue, while an extra $40 billion in funding would bring in $103 billion. Both of those are a tiny fraction of the estimated annual tax gap.

The bipartisan deal would provide $40 billion in new money for the IRS, with an expectation that it would result in around $140 billion in new revenue, or a net $100 billion gain. Those numbers differ from the CBO estimates, and it was unclear how they were derived. The White House did not respond to questions about what period of time that money would be spent in.

Independent experts like Rossotti argue that requiring more information to be sent to the IRS is crucial to enabling the agency to collect a larger portion of the taxes owed to the federal government.

“I believe the information reporting is important, and it doesn’t have to be intrusive,” Rossotti said.

A May report released by the Treasury Department concluded that $80 billion in new resources over a decade to fund new technology and to hire and train new agents, if paired with new reporting requirements for banks and other measures, would bring in $700 billion in new revenue. The Penn Wharton Budget Model, an economic research initiative, had a more modest outlook, projecting $480 billion in new revenue over a decade from the proposed tax enforcement measures.

Republicans in Congress have said they are opposed to new bank reporting requirements, pointing to the ProPublica leak as evidence that taxpayer data is not secure. A White House fact sheet on the deal released on Thursday left the issue vague, listing “reduce the IRS tax gap” as one way the bill would be paid for, but with no numbers attached.

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Any new funding would take time to have a discernible impact. It takes years to fully train a specialized IRS agent, and the agency would need to procure and deploy advanced technology that it doesn’t currently use on a widespread basis. In the meantime, the IRS will be under pressure to show results, Olson said, an approach she said would be a mistake and would potentially put vulnerable taxpayers at risk.

“There will be increasing pressure because you’ve given the IRS all this money,” she said. “Although there are many more protections now than there were for taxpayers in the mid-1990s, we have to be really careful about not putting so much pressure on the IRS to produce that you actually have excesses.”

Published : June 27, 2021

By : The Washington Post · Yeganeh Torbati

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https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40002469

SET slides despite rise in Asian indices

The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index closed at 1,582.67 on Friday, down 3.05 points or 0.19 per cent. Transactions totalled THB68.1 billion with an index high of 1,596.16 and a low of 1,577.63.

In the morning session, Krungsri Securities expected the stock market on Friday to move between 1,595 to 1,600 points, in response to US stimulus plans based on infrastructure investment, plus the up-trending oil price.

The 10 stocks with the highest trade value today were BANPU, GUNKUL, KBANK, BDMS, PTTGC, RCL, PTT, KCE, CPF and 7UP.

Other Asian indices were up:

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Japan’s Nikkei Index closed at 29,066.18, up 190.95 points or 0.66 per cent.

China’s Shanghai SE Composite Index closed at 3,607.56, up 40.91 points or 1.15 per cent, while the Shenzhen SE Component Index closed at 15,003.85, up 219.05 points or 1.48 per cent.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed at 29,288.22, up 405.76 points or 1.40 per cent.

South Korea’s KOSPI closed at 3,302.84, up 16.74 points or 0.51 per cent.

Taiwan’s TAIEX closed at 17,502.99, up 95.03 points or 0.55 per cent.

Published : June 25, 2021

By : The Nation