I REFER to last Monday’s report, ‘Moneylenders target HDB sellers‘, which mentioned that ‘agents…introduce desperate sellers to moneylenders, and may get a fee for the referral, usually about $500 a customer’. The Singapore Accredited Estate Agencies does not support the practice of estate agents obtaining referral fees from moneylenders for introducing their clients to them. [...]

credit, debt, housing loans, Singapore Hide

When stock markets rallied dramatically last year, soon after the financial crisis, it was mainly the bold and the brave who leapt right in. Many others were wary. Was this a false dawn, only to be followed by more market mayhem? They were reasonable fears, given the prognostications of so-called experts. But now that the [...]

earnings, housing, investments, retirement, Risk Management, Singapore Hide

READING the fine print just got easier, if you are an American credit-card holder. Last May, the authorities in the United States stated that all information, including applications and disclosures for that piece of plastic, has to be printed in at least 12-point font. These rules are not in effect here. But The Association of [...]

consumers, credit, Singapore, spending, US Hide

For a graduate couple in Singapore earning median salaries, the goal of becoming millionaires is not too distant, at least on paper. That is, if they save a third of their income from age 25, and invest prudently to earn a modest return of three per cent a year. This does not include non-liquid assets [...]

investments, retirement, Singapore Hide

WHILE university graduates are wallowing in self-pity over the latest news that more of them are unemployed than are polytechnic graduates, the latter group is laughing all the way to the bank. The Manpower Ministry recently found that more than 20 per cent of the unemployed in Singapore were university graduates, while just 6 per [...]

education, Singapore Hide

SINGAPORE - The Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) has written down most of its US$675 million investment in a giant New York apartment complex that was bought at the height of the property boom in the United States but which has since suffered from the collapse of the housing market there. The joint owners of [...]

housing, investment banks, Singapore, US Hide

I joined the Money section of The Straits Times in May 2000. Back then, the personal finance sector, made up of banks, insurers and broking houses, was like a sleepy giant. Each party operated in its own silo and cross-selling was uncommon. But my timing couldn’t have been better because, fortunately for me, the party [...]

dubious practices, financial products, financial scandals, insurance, investments, lesson, losses, Scams, Singapore Hide

THE growth rate of Singapore’s economy will not return to levels seen before the recent economic downturn any time soon, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday. In his speech at a bursary award ceremony at Townsville Primary School, PM Lee said that while Singapore is emerging from the downturn, he does not expect gross [...]

growth, Singapore, stock market Hide

By Tessa Wong MORE than 1,000 investors have been left high and dry after two investment companies, under investigation by the police, appear to have closed shop. Both companies were recently in the news for having riled their customers with allegedly suspicious practices, leading many of them to lodge complaints with the Consumers Association of [...]

boiler room, investments, losses, Scams, Singapore Hide

IT has been a year of “free money”. Well, almost, especially so in developed countries such as the United States and Japan, where interest rates have sunk to near zero levels over the past one year. In most other countries, including Malaysia, interest rates are nowhere near zero, but they have been hovering at their [...]

Bank Negara, China, Euro Zone, Hong Kong, inflation, Interest rates, Japan, Malaysia, monetary policy, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, UK, US Hide