Commentary

Throughout the pandemic, a wave of ransomware attacks disrupted operations in healthcare organisations around the world.

Singapore’s COVID-19 exit strategy has faced recent hurdles - surges in the past weeks have resulted in yet another tightening of measures as the government ramps up its vaccination programme to hit August 9th targets.

Your employees aren’t coming back to the office, at least not in the traditional sense. The pandemic shifted almost all industries into remote work.

For the past years, Singapore has witnessed a significant increase in cybersecurity challenges. The threats and attacks in public agencies and private institutions caused a tremendous impact on the country’s data and security landscape. The call for better regulations in data governance, compliance, and security guardrails has elevated further the pandemic. The virtualised environment translates to an open playing field for potential cybersecurity threats.

With less than six months to go to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), scheduled to be held in the city of Glasgow in November under the presidency of the UK, now is the time for Singapore to flex its green fintech credentials.

According to Singapore’s largest bank DBS, the volume of cash deposits and withdrawals fell by an unprecedented 11% in the first 3 months of 2020, a 6% fall from where the figure had been since 2017. Coupled with extraordinary growth in the adoption of e-payments, it’s safe to say that COVID-19 has altered consumer behaviour—and fast. 

In 2020, one in three people in Southeast Asia experienced online fraud amid a boom in online shopping and activity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Asia-Pacific already has the highest number of internet users in the world, so the opportunities for scammers were already aplenty before the crisis of 2020.

There is no question that the wealth of the world continues to grow, even amidst the rise of unprecedented and unexpected events of the 2020s. In 2019, the number of billionaires rose by a whopping 38.9%, and with this rise in figures, Asia became one of the major magnets for wealth. A growth of almost 7.9% in the regional high-net-worth sector has resulted in a rise in the number of family offices in Singapore.

Singapore has long been a mainstay of the financial world, offering political stability, geographic gateways, excellent legal framework and of course, a smorgasbord of tax incentives for foreign investment. The traditional banking system has branded the skyscrapers and inhabited the office space within them; in fact, up until 2014, the finance industry took up almost half of new office space in Singapore.  

The sudden shift to work-from-home due to COVID-19 has been a steep learning curve for companies and corporate leaders around the world. Arguably, in no area has this been felt so acutely as employee engagement and development. Whether it is awkward silences on Zoom calls or wondering if anyone is still listening to your virtual presentation, connection and motivation at work have been tested.

Over the past 12 months, we have come up against two public health crises. The first, a global pandemic. The second, misinformation that has run rampant in Singapore of late, amid the rise of COVID-19 cases and several clusters that have recently come to light.

Over the past 12 months, we have come up against two public health crises. The first, a global pandemic. The second, misinformation that has run rampant in Singapore of late, amid the rise of COVID-19 cases and several clusters that have recently come to light.

Employee engagement and wellness is key to ensuring employers thrive, and that technology has a major role to play

The Group of Seven (G7)  has recently agreed on a basic framework for overhauling the modern global tax system, in an effort to stop the world’s largest corporations from avoiding tax, as well as keeping up to pace with a rapidly changing digital economy.

The rapid transition from on-premises to remote workforces in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis will be looked back upon as a world-historical event. For enterprise IT, it was an earthquake that fundamentally changed the landscape on which we stand.

Singapore’s introduction of the Variable Capital Company (VCC) investment vehicle in early 2020 was lauded by many as a ‘gamechanger’ — and rightly so. The VCC brought Singapore into the same realm as other global investment titans by allowing investors to hold multiple segregated sub-funds under one umbrella fund — that is the ‘Variable Capital’ in ‘Variable Capital Company’.