:00:00. > :00:13.charge of killing four soldiers. Now on BBC News all the latest business
:00:14. > :00:20.news, live from Singapore. Shut down. One of the world's
:00:21. > :00:26.biggest bitcoin exchanges goes off-line.
:00:27. > :00:29.Hong Kong stocks change. They are set to unveil their 2013 results
:00:30. > :00:41.later today. Thanks for watching. One of the
:00:42. > :00:49.world's biggest exchanges of the virtual currency bitcoin has gone
:00:50. > :00:59.off-line. It has been in trouble lately by technical issues. It is a
:01:00. > :01:01.big set back for the backers of the bitcoin, who have been pushing for
:01:02. > :01:12.greater support of the currency. In the world of the internet, there
:01:13. > :01:17.is a currency that doesn't belong to any nation called bitcoin. I call
:01:18. > :01:24.currencies, it can be exchange into more conventional currencies. Except
:01:25. > :01:28.one of the biggest bitcoin exchange houses has gone off-line and seems
:01:29. > :01:35.to have vanished, apparently losing its customers hundreds of millions
:01:36. > :01:39.of dollars. I had 311 bitcoins in there, which was worth around
:01:40. > :01:47.$300,000 before this started. It looks like that has disappeared. The
:01:48. > :01:52.exchange did 80% of the trading for some time but it's believed it has
:01:53. > :01:57.been facing difficulty for a while. A lot of a suspected that for some
:01:58. > :02:01.time. The fact that they aren't talking openly about what's going
:02:02. > :02:10.on, they deleted all of their tweets from Twitter yesterday, something is
:02:11. > :02:14.suspicious. Other bitcoin exchanges said they were robust and this was
:02:15. > :02:20.an exception. Bitcoin is just money but you can't hold it in your hand,
:02:21. > :02:25.it is blips on a screen. And my goodness the price is volatile. How
:02:26. > :02:29.much the exchange rate for bitcoin has fallen in the past 24 hours. If
:02:30. > :02:35.the pound did that, Britain would be bankrupt. But what's really
:02:36. > :02:41.interesting about bitcoin is the chose poses a challenge to the big
:02:42. > :02:47.banks. -- the way it poses a challenge. It could be as dangerous
:02:48. > :02:52.to the traditional banks as Amazon has been to shops. It's definitely
:02:53. > :02:57.more interesting as a way of moving money around. It is faster and
:02:58. > :03:05.cheaper than any other card payment. -- kind of payment. Is it a
:03:06. > :03:16.revolution in money or a bubble about to pop? Perhaps both.
:03:17. > :03:20.Earlier, I spoke with a spokesman in Singapore to ask more about the
:03:21. > :03:23.problems. Several months ago, it stopped being
:03:24. > :03:30.able to withdraw money. In other words, if you had big -- bitcoin and
:03:31. > :03:35.you wanted to exchanges into dollars, it could only get it out of
:03:36. > :03:41.that exchange. That was a red flag to me to not put money there. You
:03:42. > :03:45.are a broker for bitcoin -based investors in Singapore. Did they get
:03:46. > :03:51.nervous after what happened and what are you telling them? My clients
:03:52. > :03:56.have been good about it. I haven't had any sell orders. Yesterday,
:03:57. > :04:01.people were buying a lot of bitcoin because of the perceived lower
:04:02. > :04:06.price. In general they are confident in the warm term value of bitcoin.
:04:07. > :04:11.Saw the price peak at about 1200. It came off because China claimed down
:04:12. > :04:15.on bitcoin trading. It is now trading at about 540. You think
:04:16. > :04:21.eventually this will be regulated in Asia? It is most likely at some
:04:22. > :04:26.point going to be regulated. Right now, we are under this fear of
:04:27. > :04:30.regulation. A lot of people talk about it being in a free market.
:04:31. > :04:34.That is not the case. I would call it a fear market. Acra one visitors
:04:35. > :04:40.are currently operating under the fear of their bank accounts being
:04:41. > :04:45.closed -- bitcoin businesses. There is a lot of talk from central banks
:04:46. > :04:49.and different agencies about how consumers need to be wary of
:04:50. > :04:54.bitcoin. That has repercussions throughout all of the financial
:04:55. > :04:57.industry. We are unable to get bank accounts, insurance, wallets. So, it
:04:58. > :05:03.is not really a free market. If it was, we would be able to get bank
:05:04. > :05:06.accounts and insurance products. What would be the right structure
:05:07. > :05:12.for the bitcoin to operate on? Again, a free market would be ideal.
:05:13. > :05:15.If we didn't have this fear of possible regulation in the future,
:05:16. > :05:19.we would certainly have more venture capital flowing in, more ability to
:05:20. > :05:26.do deals with established companies like insurance companies and banks.
:05:27. > :05:34.In other news making headlines, the US congressional report has alleged
:05:35. > :05:40.a banking giant helped US customers concealed their Swiss accounts and
:05:41. > :05:45.avoid billions of dollars in taxes. It says the bank opened Swiss
:05:46. > :05:55.accounts for more than 22,000 customers, with assets totalling $12
:05:56. > :05:57.billion at its peak. A drop package worth $280 million has been unveiled
:05:58. > :06:01.by the federal government in Australia. The money will be used to
:06:02. > :06:04.help affected farmers restructure their debts and survive the
:06:05. > :06:10.drought. It will also help assist those in personal crisis. Any parts
:06:11. > :06:13.of the country's eastern states of Queensland and New South Wales are
:06:14. > :06:17.suffering severe drought conditions after little rainfall over the past
:06:18. > :06:21.two years. What can China and the US teach each
:06:22. > :06:33.other about social media? Over the past 24 hours, we heard America's
:06:34. > :06:36.company operating a new service. And a Chinese company will operate a
:06:37. > :06:43.share service in America, raising $500,000. I spoke to a media expert
:06:44. > :07:00.in Beijing and ask -- asked if they could appeal to US investors. I
:07:01. > :07:02.think so. Weibo is the only Twitter like service available. It is
:07:03. > :07:14.creating offered thanks to the traffic from Ali Baba. Now, the US
:07:15. > :07:20.stock market is doing well. All of the Chinese internet companies are
:07:21. > :07:31.getting at least 20% growth. I think it's a good trend. That was a
:07:32. > :07:36.Chinese social media expert. JPMorgan says it will cut 8000 jobs
:07:37. > :07:40.in its mortgage and retail banking operations, as those business units
:07:41. > :07:45.continue to shrink. The bank, which employs people across Asia, already
:07:46. > :07:49.announced about half of those cuts but said it was eliminating more
:07:50. > :07:54.positions to save costs. Last year, JPMorgan laid off over 16,000
:07:55. > :07:57.bankers in those businesses. The economic recovery is gaining
:07:58. > :08:02.ground in Europe, according to the European commission, which revised
:08:03. > :08:06.up its growth forecast for 2014 and 2015.
:08:07. > :08:10.The region is expected to grow by 1.2% this year and 1.8% next year.
:08:11. > :08:16.Only when the commissioner for the economy said the worst of the crisis
:08:17. > :08:21.might now be behind us. Over to Hong Kong. The stock
:08:22. > :08:25.exchange is set to reveal its results for last years in. Analysts
:08:26. > :08:31.expect profits to be up around 15%. Fortunes have largely followed
:08:32. > :08:35.China's and growth has been encouraging. But it is still a far
:08:36. > :08:38.cry from the boom years, when the multibillion-dollar listings from
:08:39. > :08:42.the mainland drove earnings higher. Our Hong Kong correspondent has
:08:43. > :08:49.more. This is China's top international
:08:50. > :08:55.facing stock exchange. It's to some of the world's is to companies,
:08:56. > :09:02.including the mainland lender and an oil giant. But after years of
:09:03. > :09:07.headline grabbing mega listings, the market for initial public offerings
:09:08. > :09:15.has cooled. Market analysts say that's because of the US and Chinese
:09:16. > :09:20.governments to moderate expansion. -- government was Mac efforts. It
:09:21. > :09:23.shows the economy is slowing down. It is not certain whether China can
:09:24. > :09:35.obtain 7.5% economic growth this year. He says investors are hoping
:09:36. > :09:39.Chinese internet giant Alibaba list in Hong Kong this year, boosting
:09:40. > :09:43.trading activity, a major source of revenue for the stock exchange. Its
:09:44. > :09:49.financial performance will also be affected by the London Metal
:09:50. > :09:52.Exchange, purchased in 2012. The World's Largest Busk you market is
:09:53. > :10:04.trying to win business in China. All of that would help boost the
:10:05. > :10:09.economy. As the economy stabilises, investors hope the flow of new
:10:10. > :10:13.listings will begin again. Asian stock markets have
:10:14. > :10:16.strengthened slightly in need day trade. Investors are buying back
:10:17. > :10:27.stocks -- midday. Those are the Asian markets. Banks
:10:28. > :10:50.or investing your time with us. If you have Twitter, follow us at: the
:10:51. > :10:53.sport next. President Obama has asked to withdraw all US forces from
:10:54. > :10:57.Afghanistan by the end of the year if no bilateral security deal is in
:10:58. > :10:58.place. Dozens of students have been killed in an