:00:00. > :00:10.says he is the founder. I will go in front of the camera once and I will
:00:11. > :00:16.never be doing it again. Good morning, Asia, hello, world. It is
:00:17. > :00:24.Tuesday. Thank you for joining us. This is Asia Business Report. HSBC
:00:25. > :00:29.makes most of its money here in Asia but the size of its profits have
:00:30. > :00:34.been shrinking. There may be further falls. It comes as the Chief
:00:35. > :00:44.Executive is looking to close businesses and cut tens of thousands
:00:45. > :00:49.of jobs. It is unlikely to have been a good quarter for them. Perhaps not
:00:50. > :00:56.as disastrous as the last three months of 2015 with them in the
:00:57. > :01:02.red. The first three months of this year, the black. Analysts are
:01:03. > :01:08.looking at a fall in net profits of 40%. There are reasons for this. It
:01:09. > :01:15.is a volatile financial markets still. That is likely to affect the
:01:16. > :01:22.trade in volumes and the fees they make off of these trades. Because of
:01:23. > :01:28.that, a number of companies have put off their listing plans. That is
:01:29. > :01:34.affecting companies like HSBC all over the world. There is more
:01:35. > :01:39.weakness in economic conditions here in Hong Kong, the home base of the
:01:40. > :01:43.company. When you add all those trends together it looks like a
:01:44. > :01:48.gloomy quarter for the bank. Indeed. The CEO has also been
:01:49. > :01:55.talking about massive restructuring. Cuts! How will Asia
:01:56. > :02:04.be affected by the restructuring? That is right. Many cost cuts. $5
:02:05. > :02:11.billion last year. Job cuts around the world, 50,000 jobs. It is
:02:12. > :02:16.looking to sell off underperforming operations. Brazil is looking to
:02:17. > :02:24.close that deal perhaps as early as June. The Turkish ones will be sold
:02:25. > :02:29.off as well without success probably. Despite the slowing
:02:30. > :02:34.economy in China HSBC is still looking to expand in this region.
:02:35. > :02:44.According to many newspaper reports from Hong Kong they are still adding
:02:45. > :02:47.jobs. Thank you. Barack Obama has made a fresh push to finalise a
:02:48. > :02:55.trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership before it
:02:56. > :03:02.leaves office next January. -- he. The trade agreement shows the need
:03:03. > :03:05.for the TTP, he says, which covers 40% of global trade. He has written
:03:06. > :03:10.a piece in the Washington post stressing that if the mainland's
:03:11. > :03:16.proposed agreement goes ahead it would carve up some of the fastest
:03:17. > :03:25.growing markets in the world. One of Southeast Asia's largest banks, DBS
:03:26. > :03:32.Group, is posting a 60% growth margin. This boosted net interest
:03:33. > :03:39.income. They are net profit is coming in at 895 million for the
:03:40. > :03:46.three months until March. It says he is the mysterious founder of
:03:47. > :03:53.Bitcoin. Craig Wright, an academic from Australia who has gone to
:03:54. > :03:56.London to prove he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym used by the
:03:57. > :04:02.creator of Bitcoin which was launched in 2009 And now worth
:04:03. > :04:17.billions of real dollars. -- And now. I will never accept a cent ever
:04:18. > :04:25.if you put me up for an award or a noble prize will do whatever. I am
:04:26. > :04:33.going to do this once and once only. I am going to come in front of
:04:34. > :04:41.the camera once and I will never ever be on a camera ever again for
:04:42. > :04:50.any TV station or any media, ever! It seems he does not care if people
:04:51. > :04:55.don't believe him. Some people will believe, some people won't. To tell
:04:56. > :05:05.you the truth, I don't really care. You can say hand on heart to me and
:05:06. > :05:10.I am Satoshi Nakamoto? I was the main part but other people helped
:05:11. > :05:16.me. So what was it like meeting him? It was just a few days ago that
:05:17. > :05:21.my colleague and I met him who claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto. What
:05:22. > :05:37.were your first impressions? He had an intensified. -- intense vibe. It
:05:38. > :05:41.was a deep focus about him. I think part of the reason he stepped back
:05:42. > :05:47.from claiming this before is because for these kinds of people it is
:05:48. > :05:53.about work not them. The allegations from the Internet is that many don't
:05:54. > :06:00.believe him and he is an egotist. Some of the scepticism is because of
:06:01. > :06:06.the fact this is an inopportune time because they are going through a
:06:07. > :06:10.change. He is on one side of it. Some purists wants to keep it on the
:06:11. > :06:17.Internet rather than abroad payment mechanism. -- abroad. But if it is
:06:18. > :06:23.his baby maybe he wants to be part of it. There is still controversy
:06:24. > :06:30.raging over whether it is real. Will it ever be put to bed? He said you
:06:31. > :06:35.cannot prove this 100% and there are many comments saying just because he
:06:36. > :06:45.has access to the company doesn't mean he is the creator. We won't get
:06:46. > :06:49.anywhere with this. In several hours we will find out the state of
:06:50. > :06:56.Australia's one answers and it is widely expected they will go to the
:06:57. > :07:02.polls in a few months. Economic returns from tax to pensions will be
:07:03. > :07:07.key. The lusty's deficit was $29 billion. This was expected to grow
:07:08. > :07:15.even further. That may put the triple credit rating at risk. They
:07:16. > :07:21.could lose that coveted status if debt levels continue rising. I asked
:07:22. > :07:29.how Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull can balance the books. They can't in
:07:30. > :07:36.my view anytime soon. Remember, it is election year. The sort of things
:07:37. > :07:41.you need to do, cutting spending, raising taxes, they aren't on the
:07:42. > :07:46.agenda. We will get some smaller things around taxes, pension
:07:47. > :07:53.reforms, the rejigging of spending, but neither side of politics here is
:07:54. > :08:00.looking to major budget repair. It is never popular. They will not
:08:01. > :08:05.likely do that. There is a lot of talk that the corporate tax rate
:08:06. > :08:09.could be cut for the first time in 15 years and there will be a tax cut
:08:10. > :08:14.for people earning more than 80,000 Australian dollars. Would this be
:08:15. > :08:22.the right move for the government given the finances? Yeah, it is. Not
:08:23. > :08:28.necessarily because the budget is in great shape, but because you can tax
:08:29. > :08:36.better. We know that around the world high rates of company tax can
:08:37. > :08:39.discourage investment in a nation. A lower company tax rate can encourage
:08:40. > :08:49.it. That is the smart thing to do. The chances are that it won't, they
:08:50. > :08:53.will tighten in a number of areas affecting multinational companies
:08:54. > :09:01.and profit transfers across nations. My guess is, yes, a company
:09:02. > :09:04.tax rate cut. But no businesses will pay more rather than less. What
:09:05. > :09:10.would you like to see in this budget? Things that are unlikely to
:09:11. > :09:18.be there. Two mean things. Eight spelt out path that makes the budget
:09:19. > :09:24.more healthy. -- a spelt. Something that will get through the Senate and
:09:25. > :09:34.not push all the costs and repairs onto the state. And getting a better
:09:35. > :09:39.tax system, moving away from more damaging taxes like company taxes,
:09:40. > :09:47.to ones that harm the economy less. OK. Thank you. Investors are moving
:09:48. > :09:53.to the sidelines. You will have to decide whether an order not the
:09:54. > :10:08.central bank will expect it to be at the record low of 2%. -- whether or
:10:09. > :10:11.not. The all ords are down by 8.5%. Thank you for investing your time in
:10:12. > :10:13.us. See you