Daily Briefing: 3,500 tenants bought first home with housing grant help; German online payments Wirecard AG refutes fraud allegations

And Singapore concerned with the collision of Malaysia’s vessel with a Greek carrier in Tuas.

From Channel News Asia:

About 3,500 rental tenants were able to acquire their first own homes in the Build-to-Order (BTO) or Sale of Balance Flats (SBF) exercises since 2013 through various housing grants, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) revealed.

Close to 2,000 of these tenants have collected the keys and moved into their new flats, said HDB. The rest are waiting for the completion of their flats.
Eligible first-timer families who buy a flat from HDB can receive up to $80,000 of housing grants, comprising the Additional CPF Housing Grant (AHG) of up to $40,000 and the Special CPF Housing Grant (SHG) of up to $40,000.

Read more here.

From Bloomberg:

German online payments firm Wirecard AG has been questioning the foundations of the allegations regarding the potential financial irregularities, money laundering and forgery in the firm’s Asian unit.

Wirecard says that after Rajah & Tann wrapped up the May report, it hired the firm to do a fuller investigation. Wirecard CEO Markus Braun last week saw the original report for the first time, and he said that until then the entire affair had been handled by the company’s internal compliance team, which by design doesn’t include the CEO in order to avoid undue pressure from top management.

“We think this was all done to put pressure on the share price,” Braun said.

Wirecard or profit from short-sales as its stock has lost some 9b euros (US$10.2 b) in value since the Financial Times first published the allegations on Jan. 30.

Read more here.

From Yahoo! News Singapore:

Malaysian government vessel Polaris collided with a Greece-registered bulk carrier Piraeus within Singapore Port Limits off Tuas, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said.

At the time, the Piraeus was on its way from Singapore to its next port of call at Tanjung Pelepas.

MPA is deeply concerned that the presence of the unauthorised vessels in our port limits can cause confusion for the international shipping community and threaten navigational safety in our waters,” said the authority, adding that it is investigating the incident

Read more here.

Photo from Singapore Police Force.

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