17/01/2018 Asia Business Report

Ministers have ordered a fast-track

investigation into its directors.

Now on BBC News, all the latest

business news live from Singapore.

US banking giants taking major

financial hits from President

Trump's new tax reform programme.

And Australia's pokie problem tops

the list of the largest gambling

losses in the world. Good morning,

Asia. Hello, world. It's a

Wednesday. Welcome to another

edition of Asia Business Report. I'm

Rico Hizon. We start off with the US

burning season. Some of America's

biggest banks are putting this week.

Likely announce large one-time

charges in the fourth quarter. That

will surely erode their

profitability. That is a result of

President Trump's tax overhaul at

the end of last year. I am joined by

Marika Oi. Last week JP Morgan

showed better than normal earnings,

but are taking a hit.

It is a

similar story with City, also

reporting overnight. If you are

wondering, wasn't the tax reform of

President Trump supposedly good for

big corporations like these banks?

It is, but only in the long-term.

For example, City, the

fourth-biggest US bank, it expects

the tax rate to fall 25% from last

year's 30. That will be good in the

future. But it has a one-time charge

of $22 billion. It meant it lost $18

billion, to be exact. This is the

first loss since 2009. Besides the

major tax charge, they topped

expectations. The CEO said tax

reform could be the boost the US

economy needs. We will hear from

Goldman Sachs later today followed

by Morgan Stanley on Thursday,

likely a similar story. Big one-off

charges, but better profitability in

the future.

A full week ahead of

earnings. Thank you for updating us,

Marika Oi. The country with the

biggest gambling losses in the world

is Australia to be according to the

Economist Magazine, it is down to

pokies, electronic gambling

machines. They have the most in the

world.

We think of the Melbourne

Cup, which stops the country. We

think of the sharemarket. And we

think of 200 of these slot machines,

pokies as they are known, for those

who play them they are harmless.

They have flashing lights and

enticing sounds. Winning has nothing

to do with skill. They are computers

that randomly make money. But

speaker campaigners in Australia,

they believe these pokies, poker

machines, are having a pernicious

effect on Australian society. They

believe they have similar elements

to cocaine. They believe gambling

problems and these machines are

responsible for about 400

Australians taking their own lives

each year.

It is indeed an

addiction. Australians lose more per

person gambling than any other

country. Rounding out the top three

are Singapore and Ireland. In

Singapore they are strict with

gambling laws because locals have to

pay their way into the casino. Does

Australia have these regulation is?

I could take you down the road from

where I am sat here to many, many

small venues, bars and clubs, in the

city, that are everywhere. And they

are common everywhere except Western

Australia, where they are restricted

to casinos. It is worth pointing out

the gambling industry says it takes

corporate and social

responsibilities seriously. If we go

into one of those gambling venues

there would be signs telling us to

gamble responsibly. There would be

helplines for people with problems.

On line wagering industry is here in

Australia are setting up a register

where people who believe they have a

problem can join. -- industries. .

They are essentially excluding

themselves from gambling services.

They say they are taking social

responsibilities seriously. On the

other hand, campaigners believe the

problem, especially of pokies, in

Australia, is getting out of hand.

India's Supreme Court will resume

hearings challenging the biometric

identification system called Aha. It

started out to help people get

welfare benefits and food subsidies.

But now it is mandatory, and links

to phone numbers and bank accounts.

We will cross to Mumbai. Thank you

for joining us. They are calling the

hearings today the biggest test of

the system yet. Why is that?

Well,

it is the world's largest unique

digital identity scheme. India has

more than a billion people in it,

and more than that are already

registered. Lots of those people are

poor and get food subsidies. It is

thought around a quarter of those

food subsidies are stolen because of

the distribution system being so

inefficient. That is the argument of

the government. They say they have

saved hundreds of lives of dollars

since it came in because it links

people with subsidies they are

entitled to. -- hundreds of

billions. The Supreme Court will

challenge the validity of it. Many

people say it challenges the rights

to privacy, a fundamental

constitutional rights in India. They

are also challenging the way

biometric data is collected and the

use of it by government agencies.

There are pros and cons, but when

will The Supreme Court make a

decision? If it is scrapped, what

will happen next?

Well, The Supreme

Court is only resuming hearings

today. There have been a lot of

protests. There are many concerns

around digital privacy and

surveillance, as I mentioned. And

also around privacy. So, the problem

is that it is being used and is

being linked to many bank accounts

and phone numbers, but people are

saying it is voluntary, why should

we have to do it if it is not

required?

Thank you so much for

updating us. Joining us from Mumbai.

McDonald's. They say all packaging

worldwide will come from sustainable

sources and sources by 2025. They

want all items like bags and cuts to

come from recycled or renewable

materials. So, what is behind this

new green goal for McDonald's?

Samira Hussain explains.

There are a

few reasons. Wine, there is pressure

from customers who have always said

this is something they want. --

one,. Given the turbulent for

McDonald's in the past few years,

revamping their menus to get more

people to come through their stores,

to try and adhere to what the

customers really want, I mean, that

is part of it. The other part, I

would say, is the industry is

changing. If you look at the new

fast food restaurants coming onto

the market, many of them used

sustainable items when it comes to

cutlery and when it comes to their

packaging. They make an effort to do

a lot of recycling. And so there is

that pressure within the restaurant

industry for McDonald's to do this.

If you look at North America and

Europe, for example, facilities

already exist to try and create

sustainable utensils and packaging,

but in other parts of the country,

or rather, other part of the world,

that will be a lot more difficult.

McDonald's response to that is they

will invest in countries that do not

have that already for

infrastructure. They want to put

personal investment in this as well.

Leslie is selling their

confectionary business to Ferero for

$3 billion. The maker of Nutella

become the largest chocolate

company. Nestle put the chocolate

business up for sale last year and

says it wants to focus more on

products like bottled water and baby

food for future growth. The markets.

Asian stocks are negative after Wall

Street pulled back at the close

after the decline in oil and metal

stocks. The Hang Seng Index has just

opened, down from record highs,

lower by about 80 points. Well, in

the US currency, it strengthened

overnight, gaining against the euro

and the Japanese yen. Thank you so

much for investing your