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Soalan - "Apa beza emas yang dijual oleh syarikat XX dan YYYYY? Ada yang kata harga XX mahal sikit sebab ada LBMA. Kenapa harganya berbeza walaupun berat dan ketulenannya sama? JAWAPAN:1) Dua bentuk utama perdagangan emas di pasaran "wholesale" adalah over-the-counter (OTC) dan di atas platform exchange (i.e COMEX). Secara tradisinya, kebanyakan pasaran OTC berada di sekitar London manakala pasaran...

NEW YORK  - Bitcoin investors expect futures volumes to perk up when CME Group Inc, the world’s largest derivatives exchange operator, launches its own contract to wager on the cryptocurrency on Sunday. The second U.S. bitcoin futures launch is seen as another step towards big institutional investors warming up to a volatile asset that had until recently been accessible only...

PETALING JAYA: The Government is expected to exercise financial discipline even though the coming budget, which will be unveiled tomorrow, is the last one before the next general election. Economists said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak was expected to target a lower federal government budget deficit compared with 3% this year. “The overall debt levels are also expected...

Low rate environment puts banks under pressure, ING CEO says from CNBC. The CEO of a major European bank offered a stark warning for his industry on Thursday, suggesting that years of accommodative policy by global central banks could quickly turn sour. Low interest rates have been supportive for the world economy, according to ING Group's Chief Executive Ralph Hamers, but banks...

Malaysia’s central bank has a response to those saying it needs to do more to spur home loans: houses simply aren’t affordable. Bank Negara Malaysia has created a website packed with data aimed at debunking the “myth” that access to financing was deterring home ownership, showing that loan approvals for key cities are near 70 percent or higher. The central...

As the Federal Reserve prepares to begin paring the size of its $4.5 trillion balance sheet next month, analysts at Deutsche Bank on Wednesday warned that what they have dubbed the “great central bank unwind” is one of several candidates for creating the next financial crisis. “When looking for the next financial crisis, it’s hard to escape from the fact...

The world’s central banks can’t sit back and ignore the growth in cryptocurrencies as it could pose a risk to the stability of the financial system, according to the Bank for International Settlements. It said central banks will need to figure out whether to issue a digital currency and what its attributes should be, though the decision is most pressing...

A think tank sees larger loan-to-deposit ratios in banks as indicating that Malaysians are finding it harder to save money.  PETALING JAYA: The Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) has voiced concern that the average Malaysian may be in a worse financial strain that previously thought. Referring to a recent Bloomberg report that the loan-to-deposit ratios in the nation’s...

Even with all the hand-wringing about bubbles in stock and bond markets, it’s hard to ignore what’s going on in the world of cryptocurrencies and bitcoin. The value of the largest digital currency continues to soar to record highs after weathering a split last week. It has increased more than threefold this year, compared with a doubling in the value of Vertex...

SHANGHAI (July 7) Virtual currencies like bitcoin are assets but bitcoin in itself does not have the fundamental attributes needed to be a currency that could meet modern economic development needs, a Chinese central bank adviser said. Sheng Songcheng, adviser to the People's Bank of China (PBOC), made the comments in an interview with financial magazine Yicai published late Thursday...