Most of the Asian currencies retreated on Friday, coming under pressure from uncertainty over U.S. monetary policy following mixed economic readings this week. The Chinese yuan traded at two-month lows after the worse-than-expected trade and inflation data released this week pointed to a slowing economic rebound in Asia’s largest economy. Weakness in the Chinese economy dulled sentiment towards broader Asian markets.  The South Korean won fell 0.2%, while the Malaysian ringgit shed 0.3%, even as data showed that Malaysia’s economy grew more than expected in the first quarter. The Australian dollar shed 0.1% but remained relatively underpinned by expectations of more interest rate hikes by the Reserve Bank. The Japanese yen fell 0.1% and was set for mild weekly gains as fears of a U.S. banking crisis and uncertainty over the debt ceiling made for some safe-haven demand.

Parliament endorsed the first EU rules to trace crypto-asset transfers and prevent money laundering, as well as common rules on supervision and customer protection. On Thursday, MEPs approved with 529 votes in favor to 29 against and 14 abstentions, the first piece of EU legislation for tracing transfers of crypto-assets like bitcoins and electronic money tokens. The text –which was provisionally agreed by Parliament and Council negotiators in June 2022- aims to ensure that crypto transfers, as is the case with any other financial operation, can always be traced and suspicious transactions blocked. The so-called “travel rule”, already used in traditional finance, will in the future cover transfers of crypto assets. Information on the source of the asset and its beneficiary will have to “travel” with the transaction and be stored on both sides of the transfer. The law would also cover transactions above €1000 from so-called self-hosted wallets (a crypto-asset wallet address of a private user) when they interact with hosted wallets managed by crypto-assets service providers. The rules do not apply to person-to-person transfers conducted without a provider or among providers acting

SVG FSA Does Not Oversee FX Activity         First of all, let’s get one thing straight, and that is forex activities do not exist in SVG, theoretically. So, there is no so-called FSA-issued FX Brokerage License in reality, and all FSA licenses are corporate registration.           The FSA was founded in 2012, which is still young. Back then, the SVG authorities wished to promote economic growth by developing offshore finance, hence the founding of the regulator. According to the FSA Act, its role is to regulate financial entities such as non-banks within the country. But no license that authorizes trading businesses related to foreign exchange, brokerage, or a binary option is issued by FSA whatsoever. But the regulator does not prohibit a registered International Business Company (IBC) to engage in such activities, and the fact is, a big portion of financial entities registered in SVG are engaged indeed.             On the other hand, the requirements to obtain an SVG FSA license are minimal. Normally, no business plan is

          Long regarded as a backwater in Southeast Asia, Laos is famous for its soporific vibe. So much so that the acronym in the country’s official title — Lao PDR — is often mangled from People’s Democratic Republic to Please Don’t Rush. But the new railway is encouraging a faster pace.        The train links Vientiane with top visitor destinations like Vang Vieng — a karst-studded playground famous for its adventure options — as well as Luang Prabang, the country’s charming former royal capital, and Luang Namtha, with its patchwork of hill tribe minorities and jungle-clad mountains — perfect for trekking and eco-tourism. And it is a potential godsend for a tourism industry that desperately needs visitors in the wake of the pandemic.         Indeed, the semi-high-speed route now opens between Vientiane, just across the Mekong River from Thailand, and Boten, on the border with Yunnan Province in China, is not just revolutionary for Laos: it’s as advanced as any railway infrastructure seen in Southeast Asia until now.      

The collapse of FTX has dealt a catastrophic blow to crypto’s reputation and aspirations.           The fall from grace was hard and fast.  Sam Bankman-Fried was in the stratosphere only a fortnight ago. FTX, his cryptocurrency exchange, then the third-largest, was valued at $32bn; his own wealth was estimated at $16bn. To the gushing venture capitalists (vcs) of Silicon Valley, he was the financial genius who could wow investors while playing video games, destined, perhaps, to become the world’s first trillionaire. In Washington he was the acceptable face of crypto, communing with lawmakers and bankrolling efforts to influence its regulation.           Today there is nothing left but 1m furious creditors, dozens of shaky crypto firms, and a proliferation of regulatory and criminal probes. The high-speed implosion of FTX has dealt a catastrophic blow to an industry with a history of failure and scandals. Never before has crypto looked so criminal, wasteful, and useless.           The more that comes out about the demise of ftx, the more shocking the tale becomes.