Daily Briefing: Singapore's flexi-work scheme gets $70m funding boost; China's YY buys livestream startup Bigo for $1.97b

And a Barclays executive ditches his job for Standard Chartered Singapore.

From Channel News Asia:

The government added $70m to the Work-Life Grant Scheme which provides incentives for companies to offer flexible work arrangements. In total, the budget for the scheme is raised to $100m, senior parliament secretary for the Ministry of Manpower (MoM) Low Yen Ling revealed.

“This will allow more companies to benefit from the grant to sustain their employees’ flexible work arrangements adoption, including job-sharing by professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs),” she said.

She added that about 90 per cent of workers today are in companies that provide at least one ad-hoc flexible work arrangement, and unplanned time-off, ad-hoc teleworking or both.

Read more here.

From Deal Street Asia:

Singapore-based startup Bigo, which owns global live streaming platform Bigo Live and short-form social video platform Like, was acquired by Nasdaq-listed Chinese live streaming major YY for $1.97b (US$1.45b).

In a statement, YY said it has acquired the remaining 68.3% stake in Bigo from shareholders, including YY’s chairman and acting CEO David Xueling Li. The Chinese firm owned approximately 31.7% of Bigo prior to the transaction.

Bigo Live features game-like elements, providing people with the ability to send digital gifts paid for by cash-purchased diamonds that are turned to beans. These can be exchanged for more in-game diamonds or converted into real money.

Read more here.

From e-financial Careers:

Standard Chartered appointed veteran banker Julian Moneta as its Singapore-based global head of wealth management transformation.

Moneta has relocated to the Republic from London, where he was head of wealth management platform (COO) at Barclays for 18 months. He joined Barclays in 2015 as head of strategy and change for wealth.

Moneta’s hire follows other recent managerial moves. Last month, UBS took on Desmond Kuek, the former head of Singapore’s transport network, SMRT, as divisional vice-chairman for global wealth management.

Read more here.