Daily Briefing: Singapore to allow banks to invest in e-commerce; ST Engineering acquires SPTel

And here's what you need to know about Singapore's minimum wage.

From Bloomberg via Yahoo!: Singapore regulators have proposed rules that will make it easier for banks to conduct or invest in non-financial businesses such as e-commerce and digital-payment platforms, helping them to better compete with non-bank firms in these areas, Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said Tuesday. Under the proposals, lenders will no longer need regulatory approval to invest in such businesses, Heng told the annual bankers’ dinner. The Monetary Authority of Singapore will cap the investment to 10 percent of the bank’s capital funds, the regulator said in a statement accompanying Heng’s speech.

From the Motley Fool Singapore: Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd is an engineering conglomerate with a wide variety of business interests. As a quick background, ST Engineering organises its business into four main divisions: aerospace, electronics, land systems, and marine. Some divisions may have more potential than others. In early May, ST Engineering’s electronics arm, ST Electronics, snapped up a controlling stake in SP Telecommunications (SPTel).

From Money Smart via Yahoo!: Despite the government’s repeated rejection of the possibility of implementing a minimum wage in Singapore, one look at that wizened old grandpa wiping off your table at the food court, and you start to ask yourself if it really has to be so unfeasible an idea. Most recently, prominent economist Lim Chong Yah revived the debate when he stated in an interview granted to Channel News Asia that he still thinks Singapore should have a minimum wage.