26/02/2014 Asia Business Report

charge of killing four soldiers. Now on BBC News all the latest business

news, live from Singapore. Shut down. One of the world's

biggest bitcoin exchanges goes off-line.

Hong Kong stocks change. They are set to unveil their 2013 results

later today. Thanks for watching. One of the

world's biggest exchanges of the virtual currency bitcoin has gone

off-line. It has been in trouble lately by technical issues. It is a

big set back for the backers of the bitcoin, who have been pushing for

greater support of the currency. In the world of the internet, there

is a currency that doesn't belong to any nation called bitcoin. I call

currencies, it can be exchange into more conventional currencies. Except

one of the biggest bitcoin exchange houses has gone off-line and seems

to have vanished, apparently losing its customers hundreds of millions

of dollars. I had 311 bitcoins in there, which was worth around

$300,000 before this started. It looks like that has disappeared. The

exchange did 80% of the trading for some time but it's believed it has

been facing difficulty for a while. A lot of a suspected that for some

time. The fact that they aren't talking openly about what's going

on, they deleted all of their tweets from Twitter yesterday, something is

suspicious. Other bitcoin exchanges said they were robust and this was

an exception. Bitcoin is just money but you can't hold it in your hand,

it is blips on a screen. And my goodness the price is volatile. How

much the exchange rate for bitcoin has fallen in the past 24 hours. If

the pound did that, Britain would be bankrupt. But what's really

interesting about bitcoin is the chose poses a challenge to the big

banks. -- the way it poses a challenge. It could be as dangerous

to the traditional banks as Amazon has been to shops. It's definitely

more interesting as a way of moving money around. It is faster and

cheaper than any other card payment. -- kind of payment. Is it a

revolution in money or a bubble about to pop? Perhaps both.

Earlier, I spoke with a spokesman in Singapore to ask more about the

problems. Several months ago, it stopped being

able to withdraw money. In other words, if you had big -- bitcoin and

you wanted to exchanges into dollars, it could only get it out of

that exchange. That was a red flag to me to not put money there. You

are a broker for bitcoin -based investors in Singapore. Did they get

nervous after what happened and what are you telling them? My clients

have been good about it. I haven't had any sell orders. Yesterday,

people were buying a lot of bitcoin because of the perceived lower

price. In general they are confident in the warm term value of bitcoin.

Saw the price peak at about 1200. It came off because China claimed down

on bitcoin trading. It is now trading at about 540. You think

eventually this will be regulated in Asia? It is most likely at some

point going to be regulated. Right now, we are under this fear of

regulation. A lot of people talk about it being in a free market.

That is not the case. I would call it a fear market. Acra one visitors

are currently operating under the fear of their bank accounts being

closed -- bitcoin businesses. There is a lot of talk from central banks

and different agencies about how consumers need to be wary of

bitcoin. That has repercussions throughout all of the financial

industry. We are unable to get bank accounts, insurance, wallets. So, it

is not really a free market. If it was, we would be able to get bank

accounts and insurance products. What would be the right structure

for the bitcoin to operate on? Again, a free market would be ideal.

If we didn't have this fear of possible regulation in the future,

we would certainly have more venture capital flowing in, more ability to

do deals with established companies like insurance companies and banks.

In other news making headlines, the US congressional report has alleged

a banking giant helped US customers concealed their Swiss accounts and

avoid billions of dollars in taxes. It says the bank opened Swiss

accounts for more than 22,000 customers, with assets totalling $12

billion at its peak. A drop package worth $280 million has been unveiled

by the federal government in Australia. The money will be used to

help affected farmers restructure their debts and survive the

drought. It will also help assist those in personal crisis. Any parts

of the country's eastern states of Queensland and New South Wales are

suffering severe drought conditions after little rainfall over the past

two years. What can China and the US teach each

other about social media? Over the past 24 hours, we heard America's

company operating a new service. And a Chinese company will operate a

share service in America, raising $500,000. I spoke to a media expert

in Beijing and ask -- asked if they could appeal to US investors. I

think so. Weibo is the only Twitter like service available. It is

creating offered thanks to the traffic from Ali Baba. Now, the US

stock market is doing well. All of the Chinese internet companies are

getting at least 20% growth. I think it's a good trend. That was a

Chinese social media expert. JPMorgan says it will cut 8000 jobs

in its mortgage and retail banking operations, as those business units

continue to shrink. The bank, which employs people across Asia, already

announced about half of those cuts but said it was eliminating more

positions to save costs. Last year, JPMorgan laid off over 16,000

bankers in those businesses. The economic recovery is gaining

ground in Europe, according to the European commission, which revised

up its growth forecast for 2014 and 2015.

The region is expected to grow by 1.2% this year and 1.8% next year.

Only when the commissioner for the economy said the worst of the crisis

might now be behind us. Over to Hong Kong. The stock

exchange is set to reveal its results for last years in. Analysts

expect profits to be up around 15%. Fortunes have largely followed

China's and growth has been encouraging. But it is still a far

cry from the boom years, when the multibillion-dollar listings from

the mainland drove earnings higher. Our Hong Kong correspondent has

more. This is China's top international

facing stock exchange. It's to some of the world's is to companies,

including the mainland lender and an oil giant. But after years of

headline grabbing mega listings, the market for initial public offerings

has cooled. Market analysts say that's because of the US and Chinese

governments to moderate expansion. -- government was Mac efforts. It

shows the economy is slowing down. It is not certain whether China can

obtain 7.5% economic growth this year. He says investors are hoping

Chinese internet giant Alibaba list in Hong Kong this year, boosting

trading activity, a major source of revenue for the stock exchange. Its

financial performance will also be affected by the London Metal

Exchange, purchased in 2012. The World's Largest Busk you market is

trying to win business in China. All of that would help boost the

economy. As the economy stabilises, investors hope the flow of new

listings will begin again. Asian stock markets have

strengthened slightly in need day trade. Investors are buying back

stocks -- midday. Those are the Asian markets. Banks

or investing your time with us. If you have Twitter, follow us at: the

sport next. President Obama has asked to withdraw all US forces from

Afghanistan by the end of the year if no bilateral security deal is in

place. Dozens of students have been killed in an