03/05/2016 Asia Business Report

says he is the founder. I will go in front of the camera once and I will

never be doing it again. Good morning, Asia, hello, world. It is

Tuesday. Thank you for joining us. This is Asia Business Report. HSBC

makes most of its money here in Asia but the size of its profits have

been shrinking. There may be further falls. It comes as the Chief

Executive is looking to close businesses and cut tens of thousands

of jobs. It is unlikely to have been a good quarter for them. Perhaps not

as disastrous as the last three months of 2015 with them in the

red. The first three months of this year, the black. Analysts are

looking at a fall in net profits of 40%. There are reasons for this. It

is a volatile financial markets still. That is likely to affect the

trade in volumes and the fees they make off of these trades. Because of

that, a number of companies have put off their listing plans. That is

affecting companies like HSBC all over the world. There is more

weakness in economic conditions here in Hong Kong, the home base of the

company. When you add all those trends together it looks like a

gloomy quarter for the bank. Indeed. The CEO has also been

talking about massive restructuring. Cuts! How will Asia

be affected by the restructuring? That is right. Many cost cuts. $5

billion last year. Job cuts around the world, 50,000 jobs. It is

looking to sell off underperforming operations. Brazil is looking to

close that deal perhaps as early as June. The Turkish ones will be sold

off as well without success probably. Despite the slowing

economy in China HSBC is still looking to expand in this region.

According to many newspaper reports from Hong Kong they are still adding

jobs. Thank you. Barack Obama has made a fresh push to finalise a

trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership before it

leaves office next January. -- he. The trade agreement shows the need

for the TTP, he says, which covers 40% of global trade. He has written

a piece in the Washington post stressing that if the mainland's

proposed agreement goes ahead it would carve up some of the fastest

growing markets in the world. One of Southeast Asia's largest banks, DBS

Group, is posting a 60% growth margin. This boosted net interest

income. They are net profit is coming in at 895 million for the

three months until March. It says he is the mysterious founder of

Bitcoin. Craig Wright, an academic from Australia who has gone to

London to prove he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym used by the

creator of Bitcoin which was launched in 2009 And now worth

billions of real dollars. -- And now. I will never accept a cent ever

if you put me up for an award or a noble prize will do whatever. I am

going to do this once and once only. I am going to come in front of

the camera once and I will never ever be on a camera ever again for

any TV station or any media, ever! It seems he does not care if people

don't believe him. Some people will believe, some people won't. To tell

you the truth, I don't really care. You can say hand on heart to me and

I am Satoshi Nakamoto? I was the main part but other people helped

me. So what was it like meeting him? It was just a few days ago that

my colleague and I met him who claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto. What

were your first impressions? He had an intensified. -- intense vibe. It

was a deep focus about him. I think part of the reason he stepped back

from claiming this before is because for these kinds of people it is

about work not them. The allegations from the Internet is that many don't

believe him and he is an egotist. Some of the scepticism is because of

the fact this is an inopportune time because they are going through a

change. He is on one side of it. Some purists wants to keep it on the

Internet rather than abroad payment mechanism. -- abroad. But if it is

his baby maybe he wants to be part of it. There is still controversy

raging over whether it is real. Will it ever be put to bed? He said you

cannot prove this 100% and there are many comments saying just because he

has access to the company doesn't mean he is the creator. We won't get

anywhere with this. In several hours we will find out the state of

Australia's one answers and it is widely expected they will go to the

polls in a few months. Economic returns from tax to pensions will be

key. The lusty's deficit was $29 billion. This was expected to grow

even further. That may put the triple credit rating at risk. They

could lose that coveted status if debt levels continue rising. I asked

how Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull can balance the books. They can't in

my view anytime soon. Remember, it is election year. The sort of things

you need to do, cutting spending, raising taxes, they aren't on the

agenda. We will get some smaller things around taxes, pension

reforms, the rejigging of spending, but neither side of politics here is

looking to major budget repair. It is never popular. They will not

likely do that. There is a lot of talk that the corporate tax rate

could be cut for the first time in 15 years and there will be a tax cut

for people earning more than 80,000 Australian dollars. Would this be

the right move for the government given the finances? Yeah, it is. Not

necessarily because the budget is in great shape, but because you can tax

better. We know that around the world high rates of company tax can

discourage investment in a nation. A lower company tax rate can encourage

it. That is the smart thing to do. The chances are that it won't, they

will tighten in a number of areas affecting multinational companies

and profit transfers across nations. My guess is, yes, a company

tax rate cut. But no businesses will pay more rather than less. What

would you like to see in this budget? Things that are unlikely to

be there. Two mean things. Eight spelt out path that makes the budget

more healthy. -- a spelt. Something that will get through the Senate and

not push all the costs and repairs onto the state. And getting a better

tax system, moving away from more damaging taxes like company taxes,

to ones that harm the economy less. OK. Thank you. Investors are moving

to the sidelines. You will have to decide whether an order not the

central bank will expect it to be at the record low of 2%. -- whether or

not. The all ords are down by 8.5%. Thank you for investing your time in

us. See you