Latest news with #OCBC
The Star
a day ago
- Business
- The Star
3,000 cyclists keep green mission in high gear at KL race
Tan (right) and Naquib (second from right) at the flag-off in Kuala Lumpur. A RECORD 3,000 cyclists converged in the capital city for the eighth edition of OCBC Cycle Kuala Lumpur. Spanning 25km of closed roads, the event had the longest non-overlapping stretch since the series began. The race with the theme 'Let's Go Cycle', was flagged off at 6.45am by Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) Culture, Arts, Tourism and Sports Department director Naquib Hamdan. Alongside him were OCBC Bank chief executive officer Tan Chor Sen and Multigreen Events chief executive officer Nezzam Malek. OCBC Al-Amin Bank chief executive officer Syed Abdull Aziz Syed Kechik joined 400 of his OCBC colleagues in the 50km category. Featuring participants from Malaysia and 30 other countries, the race saw the more serious cyclists riding through two 25km loops. The leisure cyclists opted for a single 25km loop, children took part on their own push bikes while team cyclists took on The KL Mayor's Ride. Syed Abdull Aziz (in white) raring to take on the 50km challenge. This year's route had new twists and turns that included stretches along Jalan Conlay and Jalan Kia Peng. Tan said it was gratifying to see families, including children enjoying themselves in the push bike category. He thanked the authorities, including police and DBKL for their support. 'It is no mean feat to pull off something like this as it involves fully closed roads in the city centre. 'As part of our quest to become more sustainable in our endeavours, OCBC Cycle KL 2025 sought to be even more environmentally friendly,' he said, adding that limited or no plastic packaging or paper flyers were used for the event. Instead, event information was displayed on large boards as well as the OCBC Cycle KL website. Also absent was the usual bubble wrap for medals, which were instead placed around the winners' necks or handed to them unwrapped. Recycling bins could be seen at strategic locations for collection of banana peel that were sent for composting. Nezzam said this year's level of participation was the highest to date. The race featured prizes for three adult bicycle types – mountain, road and folding bikes – for both men and women. All participants received a medal and digital certificate each, along with event sponsor goodies.
Mint
3 days ago
- Business
- Mint
Euro zone bond yields rise as investors exit safe-havens after court blocks Trump tariffs
May 29 - Euro zone government bond yields inched up on Thursday, as investors ditched safe havens for riskier assets after a U.S. federal court blocked most of President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs. Investors moved away from bonds, gold, and safe-haven currencies such as the yen and Swiss franc after the Manhattan-based Court of International Trade found on Wednesday that Trump overstepped his authority by imposing across-the-board duties on imports from the United States' trading partners. The Trump administration has appealed the ruling. Germany's 10-year government bond yield, the euro area benchmark, rose 4 basis points to around 2.59%. It fell to around 2.51% on Tuesday, its lowest level since May 8. "For bonds and FX, the timing is convenient for an extension of the most recent trading momentum, where the dollar has already shown signs of rebounding and long-end bond yields have been facing upward pressure," said Frances Cheung, head of FX and rates strategy at Singapore-based OCBC. Long-term bond yields have risen this month on growing concern about rising debt levels among big economies such as the United States and Japan. German 30-year government bond yields edged up 2 bps to around 3.07%, while the 2-year government bond yield , more sensitive to European Central Bank policy rates, rose 3 bps to 1.83%. Markets have fully priced in a 25-bps interest rate cut from the ECB when it meets next week. They also indicated a deposit facility rate at 1.72% in December, from 1.55% in mid-April. Italy's 10-year yield rose 3 bps to 3.57%, leaving the spread between Italian and German yields around 97 bps. "Development on tariff and trade relations remains fluid. Investors may be reluctant to load heavy positions on either side of the trade," Cheung added. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
New Paper
3 days ago
- New Paper
22 nabbed for suspected involvement in government official impersonation scams
A total of 22 people, aged between 22 and 56, were arrested for their suspected involvement in the recent spate of government official impersonation scam cases. In a news release on May 28, police said the 17 men and five women were nabbed following islandwide anti-scam operations conducted between March 13 and May 22. Another four men and five women, aged between 22 and 77, are assisting in the investigations. Police said they have received several reports of scam cases involving the impersonation of banks and government officials since early March. The victim would first receive an unsolicited call from a scammer impersonating a bank officer, typically from DBS, OCBC, UOB or Standard Chartered Bank, or a staff of China-based services such as Union Pay and WeChat, police said. The scammer would tell the victim that he or she was suspected of being involved in a criminal matter, then connect them to another scammer posing as a police officer. This "police officer" would convince the victim to surrender valuables such as cash, jewellery and bank cards to an "agent" for investigation. In some cases, the victims would be instructed to buy gold bars, which they would then give up to an "agent". Preliminary investigations showed that the 31 people had allegedly facilitated such scam cases by collecting the valuables from the victims. These mules would meet the victims in public places to collect the items from them. They would later hand the items over to another mule, or leave them unattended at a public place to be picked up later. "Victims would only realise that they had been scammed when the scammers become uncontactable or when they sought verifications with the banks or SPF," police said. Police investigations are ongoing. Those convicted of assisting another to retain benefits from a scam could face a jail term of up to three years, a fine, or both. "The police take a serious stance against any person who may be involved in scams, and perpetrators will be dealt with in accordance with the law," they added. "To avoid being an accomplice to crimes, members of the public should always reject requests by others to use your bank account or mobile lines as you will be held accountable if these are linked to crimes." Government officials will never, over a phone call, ask them to transfer money, disclose bank log-in details, install mobile apps from unofficial app stores or transfer their call to the police, they said. Police also encouraged members of the public to adopt crime prevention measures, such as installing the ScamShield app, setting security features and checking for scam signs with official sources. In 2024, victims lost a total of $1.1 billion to scams - a record high for a single year. Police also saw the highest number of scam reports ever in the same year, with 51,501 cases recorded compared with 46,563 cases in 2023.
Straits Times
4 days ago
- Straits Times
22 nabbed for suspected involvement in government official impersonation scams
Investigations showed that the suspects had allegedly facilitated scams by collecting items such as cash, bank cards and jewellery from the victims. PHOTO: SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE SINGAPORE – A total of 22 people, aged between 22 and 56 , were arrested for their suspected involvement in the recent spate of government official impersonation scam cases. In a news release on May 28, police said the 17 men and five women were nabbed following islandwide anti-scam operations conducted between March 13 and May 22 . Another four men and five women, aged between 22 and 77 , are assisting in the investigations. Police said they have received several reports of scam cases involving the impersonation of banks and government officials since early March. The victim would first receive an unsolicited call from a scammer impersonating a bank officer, typically from DBS, OCBC, UOB or Standard Chartered Bank, or a staff of China-based services such as Union Pay and WeChat, police said. The scammer would tell the victim that he or she was suspected of being involved in a criminal matter, then connect them to another scammer posing as a police officer. This 'police officer' would convince the victim to surrender valuables such as cash, jewellery and bank cards to an 'agent' for investigation. In some cases, the victims would be instructed to buy gold bars, which they would then give up to an 'agent'. Preliminary investigations showed that the 31 people had allegedly facilitated such scam cases by collecting the valuables from the victims. These mules would meet the victims in public places to collect the items from them. They would later hand the items over to another mule, or leave them unattended at a public place to be picked up later. 'Victims would only realise that they had been scammed when the scammers become uncontactable or when they sought verifications with the banks or SPF,' police said. Police investigations are ongoing. Those convicted of assisting another to retain benefits from a scam could face a jail term of up to three years, a fine, or both. 'The police take a serious stance against any person who may be involved in scams, and perpetrators will be dealt with in accordance with the law,' they added. 'To avoid being an accomplice to crimes, members of the public should always reject requests by others to use your bank account or mobile lines as you will be held accountable if these are linked to crimes.' Government officials will never, over a phone call, ask them to transfer money, disclose bank log-in details, install mobile apps from unofficial app stores or transfer their call to the police, they said. Police also encouraged members of the public to adopt crime prevention measures, such as installing the ScamShield app, setting security features and checking for scam signs with official sources. In 2024, victims lost a total of $1.1 billion to scams – a record high for a single year. Police also saw the highest number of scam reports ever in the same year, with 51,501 cases recorded compared with 46,563 cases in 2023. Join ST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.
Business Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Business Times
New initiatives to facilitate cross-border data transfer and multimodal AI model Meralion
[SINGAPORE] New initiatives to facilitate cross-border data transfer and artificial intelligence (AI) safety were among the slew of announcements by the Infocomm and Media Authority of Singapore on Wednesday (May 28). A new Global Cross-Border Privacy Rules (CBPR) certification was announced, which would give businesses certainty in international data transfers. The certification would show compliance with internationally recognised data protection standards. This new certification is built on the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) CBPR certification. OCBC is among the 100 Apec CBPR-certified organisations expected to benefit. At the start, the global CBPR certification will give access to nine economies – US, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Canada, Philippines, Chinese Taipei and Mexico. The global CBPR certification will take effect on Jun 2. 'Robust safeguards and a uniform framework for personal data across borders are crucial for secure and efficient data flows,' said Loretta Yuen, head of group legal and compliance, OCBC. A new version of a multimodal large language model developed by A*Star – Multimodal Empathetic Reasoning and Learning in One Network (Meralion) – was also launched on Wednesday. Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo announced that a consortium for Meralion will be established in a speech at ATX Singapore. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up 'A*Star (Agency for Science, Technology and Research) will partner companies such as DBS, Grab, ST Engineering, NCS, SPH Media Trust as well as the Ministry of Health to harness expertise in the ecosystem, share learnings and accelerate adoption,' she said. Meralion can understand emotions, context and intent across South-east Asia's multiple languages and cultures such as English, Mandarin, Malay, Tamil, Bahasa Indonesia, Thai and Vietnamese. Version one was downloaded more than 90,000 times since its launch in December 2024. 'Understanding local nuance, context and culture isn't just a technical challenge – it's a human one,' said Bidyut Dumra, group head of innovation, DBS. The consortium will priorities three areas: Multilingual customers support: enabling seamless natural communication across languages and dialects Health and emotional insight detection: analysing speech and text for emotional cues Agentic decision-making: making AI agents aware of context and cultural sensitivity The consortium will aggregate demand and reduce costs, while sharing data and technical insights to improve Meralion's performance. Tools, training and developer resources will be built to accelerate implementation, and consortium members will develop real-world proof-of-concepts together for deployment. 'As a news media company, we recognise the importance of embracing technologies that can enhance user experience, and in so doing allow us to reach and engage audiences more effectively,' said Loh Yuh Yiing, chief operating officer of SPH Media.
