I was reading in interest on
this article at CNA website.
Basically, consumers are starting to ask why the bank isn't cutting their interest rates now that the SIBOR or interbank lending rates are coming down, and that the banks should start to pass on the savings to the customers. I have a simple answer to that.
GREED.Lets be honest with ourselves. Banks are corporate entities. They exists to make money. They are not some charitable organisation or govt entities whose purposes are to serve the public good *sniggers*
NKF, LTA, PTA, PAP anyone? An opportunity to make more money while cutting your own costs makes good business sense, which would allow the
top management shareholders of the companies make more profit and bonuses.
I'm quite sure even when eventually the bank comes out with more competitive packages/interest rates, they will find a way of offering it only to NEW customers and not for existing customers that would want to do a refinancing to this better rate so that they can continue to milk the poor souls who signed on the dotted line believing that a variable interest rate will actually come down. Never seen that happening before. *shrugs*
Analysts say banks yet to respond to call for mortgage rate cuts
By Pamela Almeda, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 11 February 2008 2253 hrs
Photos 1 of 1
SINGAPORE : With global interest rates trending downwards, some Singapore homeowners are hoping to see a similar move in mortgage rates.
This is especially after the Singapore Interbank Offered Rate (SIBOR) hit its lowest level in almost four years in late December - at 1.5 percent.
However, some analysts have said that the banks may not be willing to lower rates, in light of the current volatility in global financial markets.
Global interest rates are trending downwards, with the US Federal Reserve cutting its benchmark by one and a quarter point over two weeks recently.
The SIBOR has also been slipping - hitting its lowest since 2004 in recent months.
SIBOR is the rate at which banks lend to each other and it usually affects mortgage rates.
Some market watchers have said that they expect to see further downside.
Jimmy Koh, Vice-President, Global Markets and Investment Management, UOB Group, said, "We'd probably see Sing rates by the middle of the year maybe about 1.25 percent and probably hovering around this level as we hit towards the end of the year."
Currently, the SIBOR is at 1.67 percent, down from 3.44 percent a year ago.
Some homeowners are hoping that this could translate into lower mortgage rates.
However some analysts said they do not expect to see any adjustment soon, given the current global credit crunch.
Thio Chin Loo, Senior Currency Strategist, BNP Paribas, said, "In this downturn, because of the uncertainty of the scenario, banks would be quite unwilling to cut rates too quickly even if SIBOR rates were falling. So I think there is going to be a lag still, but what they will promote is probably these flexible packages that are pegged off SIBOR yields".
The pressure, though, will be on the banks to move.
Professor Annie Koh, Associate Dean, Singapore Management University, said, "If enough customers are (saying)...'we can see the transparency of the SIBOR, why isn't housing loan rates coming down', the banks have to come in and say 'okay maybe we were pegging it to last year's interbank rate. The revision should be coming in now'.
"So new loan rates will probably be a lot more competitive because it's so clearly shown to the rest of the world what the SIBOR rates are at right now."
Experts also said SIBOR-pegged packages are attractive, especially if there is an option to convert to fixed rates.
Professor Koh said, "You should ask the bank, is there an option where I can take the first 3 years on a floating loan basis...and I like the option to convert from floating to fixed."
Loans pegged to SIBOR can be beneficial in the short term as the SIBOR is expected to decline further to about 1.25 percent by mid-year, remaining steady until the year-end.
However, analysts have said that inflation is a risk to consider.
BNP Paribas' Thio said, "I don't dismiss that higher inflation could actually push rates up further down the line and that those who are on these flexi-package could be exposed."
Meanwhile, the Big Three banks told Channel NewsAsia that in fixing mortgage rates, there are other factors to consider, apart from SIBOR.
These include long-term market trends, operating costs as well as pricing competition.
The average mortgage rate in Singapore stands at between 3.75 percent and 4.5 percent.
Koh Kar Siong, Managing Director and Head of Secured Loans, DBS, said, "Our mortgage packages are pegged to publicly benchmarked rates such as Sibor and CPF Ordinary Account rate, and they will move in tandem with market rate movement.
"Customers no longer have to worry about paying higher interest rates as the mortgage rates will always be aligned to the market."
A UOB spokesperson said, "We are monitoring the situation and note that pricing of mortgages are long-term financial commitments, and we strive to provide stable mortgage rates to our customers.
"We would like to highlight that other than cost of funds, operating costs and credit spreads would also have to be considered."
Gregory Chan, Head of Secured Lending, OCBC, said, "Lending rates for the fixed and variable rate home loan packages are determined based on a number of factors which include longer term market rate trends, pricing competition as well as specific details of the loan package, for example the type of property, property development status among others.
"We will review the situation before making any decisions on adjusting the rates of our packages."
Meanwhile, some analysts said the rates are already low, but they do not discount that banks can cut rates.
Robert Prior-Wandesforde, Senior Asian Economist, HSBC, said, "Those fixed rate mortgages are actually at fairly low levels already. They didn't rise a huge amount previously when market interest rates were increasing, and correspondingly they haven't obviously fallen much this time.
"Looking ahead, I would expect with the kind of deposit growth that the banks are seeing, I wouldn't be surprised to see mortgage rates perhaps edge down a little bit in the next few months." - CNA/msLabels: banks, housing loan, interest rates, singapore
Back!
Stopped blogging ever since I started work in this life sucking, energy sapping, money squeezing organisation. Time really flies and it's been more than a year. Was just talking last nite and the topics kinda veered towards blogging and she started asking if I had a blog, which kinda reminded me of this long nelgected place where I had a good time.
And as
Mr Wong would say, its a matter of time management. So as of today, I'm back, and hopefully for good :)
Singapore falls even further in press freedom
In its third year, Singapore has slipped from 140th position to 146th position this year in ranking by
Reporters Without Borders.
Area : 620 sq.km.
Population : 4,330,000.
Languages : English, Chinese, Malay, Tamil.
Head of state : President S.R. Nathan.
Head of government : Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
Singapore - Annual report 2006
More than a year after coming to power, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, son of the country’s strong man, Lee Kuan Yew, had not begun any liberalisation of the media. Despite statements in support of an “open” society, the ruling party still does not brook any criticism.
Questioned by the international press about Singapore’s position in the 2005 World Press Freedom Index (140th out of 167), senior minister Goh Chok Tong called it a “subjective measure computed through the prism of western liberals”. He also defended the Singapore model for controlling the media, saying that a press that was too free was “not necessarily good for the entire country”.
Relatively independent for regional and international news, when it comes to domestic politics Singapore’s press, still controlled by associates of Lee Kuan Yew, is in the grip of a rigorous self-censorship. The government threatens journalists, foreign media and opposition with defamation suits seeking dizzying amounts in damages.
The government uses around a score of draconian laws, particularly those on the granting of licences for publications, on films, religious and political website managers and on national security, to stifle any criticism.
Freelance film-maker Martyn See was accused of breaking the law on films by putting out a “partisan” documentary, “Singapore Rebel”, a portrait of an opposition figure Chee Soon Juan. In August police seized all copies of the film and the videotapes on which it was recorded. The film puts See at risk of a penalty of up to two years in prison or a fine of almost 500,000 euros.
In 2005, Hong Kong-based financial website FinanceAsia.com, apologised and agreed to pay compensation after the authorities threatened a lawsuit against it over an article it posted on a Singaporean investment company with links to the government.
Mdm Ho Ching must step down as head of Temasek
I'm sure many people's impression of CSJ is not very good, due to the media portray of him as either a raving mad man, or a troublemaker that is a danger to singapore. I once had that impression too. But then I started reading a couple of his books, simply out of curiosity initally, but found that he actually made alot of sense. Sure, some of his antics or articles may be abit over the top for local tastes, but I think we should delve more in depth to simply see the gist of what he was trying to say. For example, the following article makes complete sense to me if you ask me. When will Singaporeans get the transparency out of Temasek that we deserve? Is it another NKF in the making? But this time, with no govt backed entity such as the SPH going against it, who can make them disclose anything? Until now, Temasek has remained dumb on the question as to whether they had
knowingly bought full control into Shin Corp despite the Thai laws not allowing them to. They are simply not bothered to even reply to their shareholders(ie Singaporeans) queries.
Media Release: Mdm Ho Ching must step down as head of Temasek
20 Oct 06
Given the revelations of the scandalous deal between Temasek Holdings and Shin Corp which continue to trickle from Bangkok, it is impossible for Singaporeans not to take notice.
The transaction has not only provoked outrage among the Thai people, leading to the souring of relations between Singapore and Thailand.
This reinforces the Singapore Democrats' stand that the Government has to get out of being directly involved in business as it arouses, not without reason, suspicion in the countries in which it makes deals.
In addition, with the questionable performance of the Temasek-linked companies and some high profile debacles, including
- The sinking of Micropolis which cost Singaporeans $630 million
- The ill-advised acquisition of Optus by SingTel which stands to face a write-down of between $5 billion to $8 billion,
- And the present eruption of the Shin Corp deal in which due diligence was not exercised which may yet incur a loss of up to $3 billion
it is clear that Madam Ho Ching, wife of PM Lee Hsien Loong, has failed as head of Temasek. Her decision to buy into Shin Corp has even provoked a criminal investigation into the deal in Thailand.
And while Mr Thaksin Shinawatra and his family are laughing all the way to the bank, Temasek has lost the hard-earned money of Singaporeans which now looks unrecoverable.
While all these developments have taken place, the Government and the company continue to remain tight-lipped apart from the few platitudes offered by the Prime Minister that serve no purpose or have any meaning.
In light of all this the SDP calls on Madam Ho Ching to resign as chief executive of Temasek Holdings.
In addition, in the interest of transparency and accountability Singapore should hold its own public inquiry into the affair and have Temasek come clean about all the related matters. There are reports that the non-transparent deal was influenced by members of the Lee family.
If Temasek is indeed a commercial entity that adheres to the corporate code of conduct, then it will make itself transparent to its shareholders, that is, Singaporeans.
Singaporeans must be given all the information to determine for themselves if there were any wrong-doings by all the players involved.
Chee Soon Juan
Secretary-General
Singapore Democratic PartyLabels: Chee Soon Juan, Mdm Ho Ching, sdp, singapore, Temasek
On traffic wardens again
Looks like I'm not the only one with
issues with the traffic wardens. Some
other folks have started writing in to the ST Forum and I would be looking forward to an explanation they give and see if the answers did indeed come out from a standard template. :)
I would like to see a fairer system rather than the current one where its our words against an public servants, and 9 out of 10 times, our voices are drowned out and simply ignored. I understand that there are some trials being conducted to use the car IU for parking etc, but that would still be a pretty long way to go before it can be used. And lets hope that no EZ-link kinda
cock upsissues occurs.
For now, I think the cheapest and easiest way to overcome the problem would be to equip the wardens with digital cameras, take pics of the offending car and its coupons as proof. One problem though, they might have some difficultly holding their umbrellas.
Labels: camera, fairer system, traffic, wardens
Numerology
I always hated numbers and I never believed much in horoscopes etc, but this have got to be one of the closest that I would ever come to acknowledging one. You should probably try it out for yourself. I just tried the
life path and it seems freakingly close. More on it
hereJust for the record, I'm Path 8 and SHE is Path 5, and this is what I got.
5 and 8: This is a relationship between two individuals who don't always follow the rules, and they might find themselves locking horns on the rules of a relationship. The 8 is used to being the boss and dominating most situations. The 5 seeks freedom from any restraints. The 8 is focused on success, particularly in a financial sense, and the 5 doesn't even want to think about money. It will take careful planning and compromise to make this relationship work.Freakishly accurate down to the very last word.
Would want to try out more of the stuff on the site, but I freaking hate numbers and there's like no automated calculator program or something and everything had to be done by hand, and I seriously had enough of calculations for the week. Someone go write a program/script for automated calculations please... haha..
Labels: Numerology
Streaming in school to be scrapped
Pretty good news if you ask me. I was never a fan of the streaming system, being a pretty late developer myself. As I forced myself to go through hours and hours of additional classes and homework just to keep up, school started losing its lustre and learning changed from being fun, to a chore. Hopefully, future batches will have a better time, and there will be no more stigma attached to kids from the EM3.
Full article hereLabels: em3, school, singapore, streaming
On traffic wardens
There has been a recent spate of letters to the
ST forums regarding the outsourcing of the responsibility of dishing out traffic offences to the public to private companies. People have complained of getting more summons, the writer that started it all claims to have kena 5 tickets in one month, despite having a clean record for over 40 years. Interesting... haha..
I'm not too sure of the situation nowadays, since I've not driving anymore. I do remember that I was always often booked for certain offences, mainly parking related. I did appeal a couple of them, which I felt was unjustified, for example, there was once I was booked for not displaying my parking coupon CLEARLY even though I left it as I always did just beside the ERP sensor. Appeals were never successful, I almost always got a similar template reply that honestly, is full of bureaucratic crap that if decipered successfully, failed to make any real sense.
I have always wondered a few questions. For example, in my above mentioned case, where the offence is that the coupon is not displayed clearly, how do you define clear? Is there a standardised location where one must display it? What if the warden has poor eyesight? Are there any proofs, for example, the warden should take down a picture of the situation so that if the driver wants to dispute the matter, they can handle it in a clear and just manner, instead of simply one man's word against another's? I did display a valid coupon after all, and I dispute the fact that it was not displayed clearly, but once again, there is no clear definition of 'clear', and it basically ended up between my word against the warden's, neither side having actual proof, yet I ended up on the losing end as I still have to pay up my fine after my failed appeal, otherwise I would have to end up in court.
I recalled an incident some time ago, also in the ST forum, where a member of the public wrote in to comment that he/she witnessed a police officer using his mobile phone without a hands-free set while driving, and listed the time of the offence, as well as the car plate number of the vehicle. The reply from the SPF was that, after investigation, the officer confirmed he was at the place and in the vehicle, but denied that he was using his phone, and the member of public that witness the incident was invited to contact the SPF to pursue the matter. I'm not sure what happened next but I would believe that the writer would most probably choose not to pursue the matter on their own time and the officer will probably get off scott free IF he was guilty as charged. To me, it seems like a public servant's statement is given precedence over the public. Imagine if you receive a summon that you have been spotted taking a car while driving without using a hands-free set at a given time and place, with your car plate number. You admitted being there, in your car, but denied that you have been using your phone. What do you think is the likely outcome?
Labels: police, singapore, summons, tickets, traffic, wardens
Foreign talents
Came across this article on
My Singapore News regarding yet another PM dialouge with the youths in their latest
charade attempt to connect with the youth.
What interest me is the point being made in the above linked post.
Extract:
During last night's PM dialogue with the youth the concern of letting in too many foreign talents in the salary bracket of $1,800 and $2,500 were raised. This is the group that will hit very hard on our young graduates and executives. The fear is genuine.
Hsien Loong's response was to acknowledge the concern but added, 'I think we should bring in people who can make a contribution and as for our people, you'll compete with them but at the same time because they are here, our economy will grow and there will be more business, more opportunities for us.'Personally, I fall into this very group. I graduated couple of months back, with a degree in Information Systems & Mangement. Prior to that, I had a diploma from a local polytechnic in an IT related field as well. You can say that IT is both my interest and probably my forte and I consider myself pretty good at it, and enjoy it as well. Like every other young people, I have dreams of landing a 'dream job' whereby I can get a job that pays well, while at the same time doing what you love. Its easier said than done.
I guess in a way, IT industry is more affected than many others say maybe manufacturing or engineering sector as a result of globalisation. IT projects are so many easier to outsource for example, you can easily get a programmer from India or a web designer from China to do parts or even entire projects without having the need to be physically in Singapore at a fraction of the cost compared to hiring locals. I accepted that fact a couple of years back and as software engineering is not my core interest anyway, I have more interest in networks and hardware, it didn't really bother me too much.
The hard fact hit me when I went job hunting. 80% of the interviews I went to, the interviewer basically just sneer at my so called 'accomplishments' such as projects and my results slip and told me that in the real IT industry, paper qualifications count for nothing, they want actual experience. Cool. I can understand that. I'm willing to work for the chance, the experience, as long as you are willing to give me the chance, and of course, a reasonable pay package. Most of my fellow classmates, which incidently, none is in the IT line anymore, have an average pay package of $2000 - $2500, so I was expecting along the lines of $2000, or maybe slightly lesser by a couple of hundreds, if it meant landing a job I craved.
I did not count the number of interviews I went to, but I'm quite sure that I had been to no fewer than 10 interviews, and I really seen the share of ridiculous offers. The most jarring incident was one whereby the interviewer offered me $1200 and refused to add a cent more, telling me that he can easily get a foreigner with a S-Pass to do the job at that price, and they would be far more experienced than me. In fact, I should be grateful that he is offering me this opportunity to learn and I quote
"Nobody will want to hire a fresh graduate these days when we can get more experienced people for less, and they don't need to go back for reservist." I do not want to sound arrogant or anything here, but come on lah, I am afterall a degree holder, you are basically paying me less than what I would have expected even as a poly graduate lor. Back when I was running my pub, I paid my perm staff $1500 a month and he doesn't even have a full 'O' levels. I probably should have gotten a foreigner to do the job too huh... Then where will all the locals go and find their jobs? I seriously can understand if they get foreigners to do stuff that locals want to do such as construction etc, or if they are REAL talents, they can be a CEO or some high ranking expatriates that we have come to get used to. But by allowing them to come in at entry level and take away the opportunity from young fresh graduates, it will only be breeding a whole new generation of discontent youths. Stop giving lip service and model answers in response to questions such as the above mentioned and show us that you are really paying attention to what we are saying.
Labels: foreign talent, fresh graduate, jobs, singapore
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