Briefs

US President Joe Biden signed half a dozen executive orders on Jan 20, reversing several hardline immigration policies put in place by former President Donald Trump, although migration experts warn that it will take months or longer to unravel many of the restrictions imposed in the past four years.

Just hours after being sworn in and in a sharp departure from his Republican predecessor, Biden — a Democrat — also sent an immigration bill to Congress that proposes opening a path to citizenship for millions of immigrants living in the US unlawfully.

The executive actions, signed at a ceremony at the White House, included immediately lifting a travel ban on 13 mostly Muslim-majority and African countries, halting construction of the US-Mexico border wall and reversing a Trump order preventing migrants who are in the US illegally from being counted for congressional districts.

Biden also signed a memorandum directing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the US attorney general to preserve the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme, which protects migrants who came to the country as children from deportation.

Biden also reversed Trump’s executive order calling for stricter immigration enforcement away from the country’s international borders.

Biden’s DHS also issued a memorandum calling for a 100-day moratorium on some deportations.

DHS also said it would end all enrollments in a controversial Trump plan known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, which forced more than 65,000 asylum seekers back to Mexico to wait for US court hearings.

The release did not clarify what will happen to migrants currently in the programme, many of whom have been stuck for months in squalid tent camps near the southwest US border.

The actions show that Biden is beginning his presidency with a sharp focus on immigration, just as Trump kept the issue at the centre of his policy agenda until the last days of his administration — though they come at the issue from radically different perspectives.

In one of his rare post-election public appearances earlier this month, Trump visited a section of the US-Mexico border wall, which he had ordered built by shifting funds, partly from the military budget.

Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, travel to the US has been curbed. DHS said in its announcement on Jan 20 that current non-essential travel restrictions will remain in place. — Reuters

Hong Kong and Changi lose status as Asia’s busiest airports

Hong Kong no longer has the busiest airport for international traffic in Asia after the Covid-19 pandemic wiped out travel, leaving South Korea’s Incheon International Airport in top spot, albeit with drastically fewer numbers than previous years.

Hong Kong International Airport handled 8.84 million passengers in 2020, an 88% plunge from the previous year.

That sent it down two spots to third, below Seoul’s Incheon and Singapore’s Changi Airport in second. Incheon processed 11.96 million passengers last year, leaving it on top of the pile for the first time ever. Changi handled 11.8 million.

All three airports handled more than 60 million passengers in 2019, but the pandemic then came along and scorched demand for travel.

Hong Kong and Singapore were affected more than most as they don’t have a domestic market to cater to, while transit traffic also slowed due to restrictions on movement.

On top of that, for Hong Kong, visitor numbers started slowing in the second half of 2019 as antigovernment protests gripped the city.

South Korea took a less stringent approach to containing the virus than Singapore and Hong Kong, keeping its borders relatively open and avoiding lockdowns. The government encouraged safe social distancing and made mask-wearing mandatory early on.

Taking into account domestic traffic, the main airports in Beijing and Shanghai had far more passengers than Incheon, Changi and Hong Kong as China brought its outbreak largely under control and air travel within the country recovered. Beijing Capital International Airport handled 34.5 million domestic and international passengers in 2020, while 30.5 million passed through Shanghai Pudong International Airport.

Elsewhere, London Heathrow is no longer the busiest airport in Europe after passenger numbers dropped 73% last year, leaving it trailing Istanbul and Paris Charles de Gaulle.

Singapore and Hong Kong agreed to start a travel corridor last year, but that was put on hold because of an increase in Covid-19 cases.

Singapore Airlines this week started trials of a pre-departure testing service for passengers. — Bloomberg

Japan government-backed investors lead Series A funding for iSTOX, raises US$50 mil

Singapore trading platform iSTOX, on Jan 21, announced that it has closed US$50 million ($66.3 million) for its Series A funding.

The global digital securities platform now counts JIC Venture Growth Investments (JICVGI), the venture capital arm of Japan Investment Corporation (JIC) nd Development Bank of Japan (DBJ), which is a financial institution wholly owned by the Japanese Government.

In addition, Japan’s Juroku Bank and venture capital firm Mobile Internet Capital (MIC) have also joined iSTOX as new investors.

In the latest round of financing, iSTOX’s existing investors Singapore Exchange (SGX), Japan’s Tokai Tokyo Financial Holdings and Korea’s Hanwha Asset Management added to their holdings as well.

“The support of government-backed investors JIC-VGI and DBJ as well as other new investors in this round signals a rising confidence in the iSTOX digital securities platform and our business model,” says Choo Oi Yee, chief commercial officer of iSTOX.

“Existing shareholders SGX, Tokai Tokyo and Hanwha have also added to their holdings, which shows that investors who have engaged with iSTOX for some time continue to have strong conviction in our mission and our potential.”

“Capital markets are transforming rapidly because of advancements in technology. The regulator MAS and our institutional investors have been far-sighted and progressive, and they support the change wholeheartedly,” she adds.

According to iSTOX, the new financing will be used to expand the brokerage’s footprint in terms of onboarding blue-chip issuers and rolling out issuances involving Europe and Australia.

iSTOX is also looking to expand in China, where it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Chongqing Monetary Authority last November

“Also in the iSTOX pipeline are issuance deals involving other regions, including Europe and Australia. The digital securities space will grow by leaps and bounds in 2021. iSTOX will lead the competition globally and bring positive change to the world of finance,” says Choo.

On the investment, JIC-VGI CEO Hideki Yarimizu says: “We have decided to participate in the launch of the next generation of digital financial services and platforms covering Asia. We believe that this project will also contribute to the development of Japanese financial services. We look forward to working with iSTOX’s management and shareholders.” — Felicia Tan

BlackRock to add bitcoin as eligible investment to two funds

BlackRock is adding bitcoin futures as an eligible investment to two funds, a company filing showed, in a move to bring the world of cryptocurrency to its clients.

The world’s largest asset manager said it could use bitcoin derivatives for its funds BlackRock Strategic Income Opportunities and BlackRock Global Allocation Fund Inc.

The funds will invest only in cash-settled bitcoin futures traded on commodity exchanges registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the company said in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Jan 20.

CEO Larry Fink had said at the Council of Foreign Relations in December that bitcoin is seeing big giant moves every day and could possibly evolve into a global market

Earlier this month, Bitcoin — the world’s most popular cryptocurrency — hit a record high of US$40,000, rallying more than 900% from a low in March and having only just breached US$20,000 in mid-December.

A BlackRock spokesperson declined to comment beyond the filings when contacted by Reuters. — Reuters