TradInvest International Ltd.

New Double Tax agreements for Malta

tradinvest — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:13:22 +0000

Increase in trade between Malta and Saudi Arabia has been the inspiration for both countries to sign a double taxation agreement. During a meeting in Riyadh, in January, between the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Malta Dr Tonio Borg and Prince Saud of Saudi, the convention on the avoidance of double taxation was signed. Saudi Arabia is the most powerful and the largest member of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Bahrain has upgraded its Income Tax Treaty of 2010 by way of Article 45 of the Laws of Malta.

Big banks’ reform yet again

tradinvest — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 14:57:18 +0000

The Independent Commission on Banking has put forward a proposal to radically reform UK’s biggest banks by 2019. The Commission is recommending a physical separation of retail and investment banking operations.

Such a move would mean that the bigger banks such as Barclays and RBS are in for some major changes. Approximately one-third of their total loans and investments, amount to £2trillion, will have to be moved to the ring-fence of retail banking.

China’s rapid economic growth

tradinvest — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 08:47:55 +0000

China has become the number one market for the world’s most important commodities. Hard work from ordinary people across the Asian continent is reaping dividends. The renminbi-denominated letter of credit is being eagerly adopted elsewhere, with TF Review reporting that this now accounts to 8% of China’s annual trade, equating to US$100 billion.

So will China’s financial system collapse under the accruing depts in state-owned enterprises and banks, or is the country’s economy heading towards overtaking America as the world’s number one?

Oil prices surging

tradinvest — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 14:10:55 +0000

The price of crude oil keeps surging, and it has now reached a two-and-a-half year high. The market is also expressing concerns about the weaking of the US Dollar, while trading markets today saw the Pound and the Euro rise further.

An increase of US$ 1.29 saw the cost of a barrel rise to US$ 111.59. Sources claim that this increase combined with the weakening of the Dollar could result in what the IMF described as “a period of increased scarcity” of oil supplies.

US trade deficit up during 2010

tradinvest — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 14:57:44 +0000

US trade deficit was on the up during 2010 by the highest margin ever recorded in a decade by the Commerce Department.

A 32.8% increase on the 2009 figures, the difference between imports and exports hit $497.8 billion, the highest deficit since the year 2000.

Import was affected by the increase in purchases from China, which reached $364.9 billion for the year 2010.

Printing glitch equals trouble for Santander

tradinvest — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 14:28:01 +0000

About 35,000 Santander customers have received the wrong bank statement, claims one report. The bank customers received the first page of their account but subsequent pages belonging to other clients.

The bank reacted immediately by writing to all the effected customers, and informed the Financial Services Authority about the problem. The latter may impose a hefty fine due to a breach of data protection.

A spokesman for Santander said “We are sorry for any inconvenience caused …… we take the security of customers and account information extremely seriously, so any incident of this nature is treated with the highest priority.”

Shares react to Irish debt concern

tradinvest — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 09:21:07 +0000

Shares in Europe and Asia have fallen on fears that the Irish debt might spread to other European countries.

The bail-out money will come from the European Union. Following the bail-out of Greece, this is the second country to turn to the EU for financial support. Yet again banks are being targeted as a maneouvre in the next budget to improve this sector.

A four-year budget plan should be tabled on Wednesday, implementing drastic cuts and targeting a budget deficit of 3% of GDP by 2014.

Boost in the economy for Malta and Germany

tradinvest — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 11:46:49 +0000

Bloomberg reported last week that the Euro-zone’s smallest economy – Malta, and the largest economy – Germany, were the only two to register a boost in their “competitiveness and fiscal sustainability” during the past five years.

Allianz chief economist Michael Heise claimed that “virtually all Euro-zone countries still face a massive task in getting their public finances back in order.”

Privatisation in Russia

tradinvest — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 14:25:12 +0000

Russia is moving towards the privatisation process of 900 state firms, a move that could raise up to Rb 1.8 trillion (USD60 billion/Eur43 billion). This action should counteract the country’s increasing budget deficit.

Among the companies forming this group is the oil giant Rosneft and Russian railways, said the Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov. Major privatisations took place in Russia in the 1990s with the sale of state controlled assets, but this strategy proved highly unpopular.

Swift price cuts

tradinvest — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 14:10:30 +0000

The provider of global financial messaging services SWIFT has announced price cuts on its core service FIN with effect from 1 January 2011.

CEO Lazaro Campos announced the reduction in line with SWIFT’s vision and mission for the next five years SWIFT2015, which should see further price cuts while committing to invest further in the security and the reliability of the product. The company has seen year-to-date traffic growth of approximately 7% recoring a high on 11 May 2010 with over 18.3 million FIN messages being processed on the day.