Daily Briefing: Facebook grants $4.75m to SMEs; Barclays to set up FX trading hub in Singapore

And Singaporeans to receive $100 worth of local tourism vouchers.

From ChannelNewsAsia:

Facebook will give about $4.75m in grants to small businesses in Singapore that have been hit by COVID-19, the company announced in a media release.

About 800 local enterprises that employ between two and 50 people are expected to benefit from the grants. Each grant will amount to $5,500 each, comprising $3,500 in cash, and $2,000 in optional ad credits. Applications for the grants will be open until 22 September.

To be eligible, firms must have been in business for more than a year and "experienced challenges due to the pandemic", said Facebook. They need not have any presence on Facebook to apply.

Read more here.

From Bloomberg:

Barclays will start a foreign exchange trading and pricing engine in Singapore in mid-2021, marking the British lender’s fourth electronic currency trading hub globally, according to a statement.

Barclays will build out a local version of the trading system, known as BARX, adding to hubs in New York, London and Tokyo, the London-based bank added.

Barclays joins global banks such as Citigroup Inc., UBS Group AG, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. in setting up electronic forex systems in Singapore as the island state aspires to be Asia’s biggest foreign-exchange currency center.

The pricing and trading engines allow investors to reduce the time lag from routing trades elsewhere and last year helped Singapore take market share from Japan, whilst competing against Hong Kong that’s at the forefront of the yuan market.

Read more here.  

From ChannelNewsAsia:

Every Singaporean aged 18 and above is set to receive $100 worth of SingapoRediscovers vouchers, which can be used on staycations, attraction tickets and tours, said the Singapore Tourism Board (STB). The vouchers can be used between December this year and the end of June next year.

A $10 subsidy will also be provided for children and youth tickets for attractions and tours. Each adult may purchase up to six children or youth tickets at subsidised prices during the duration of the scheme.

Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing said the move will help the local tourism industry, which has been battered by COVID-19.

The vouchers will be provided in denominations of $10 via SingPass, and may be used to purchase tickets for attractions and tours, and accommodation bookings at licensed hotels, said STB.

Read more here.