Daily Briefing: Tours in Singapore can now take up to 50 people; GIC's annualised return plunges to 2.7%

And at least 21 Singaporeans fall victim to transnational credit card fraud.

From ChannelNewsAsia:

Local tours run by operators and tourist guides can now have bigger groups, as long as safe distancing measures are in place between sub-groups of participants, according to the Singapore Tourism Board (STB).

Tours involving transport such as buses can take up to 50 people or at the vehicle's maximum operating capacity after implementation of safe management measures, whichever is lower.

Local walking, cycling and kayaking tours are limited to a maximum of 10 people excluding the tour guide.

All tours have to ensure that there are not more than five people in a sub-group. At least 1m distance has to be maintained between the sub-groups and there should be no intermingling.

Tours also cannot exceed eight hours, STB said.

Read more here. 

From DealStreetAsia:

Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC reported its worst rate of return since the financial crisis in 2009 with its 20-year annualised rate of return down to 2.7% in Q1 from 3.4% in 2019.

The company warned that the global pandemic could further affect its performance.

GIC stressed that the fall was due to the dropping out of tech-bubble gains 21 years ago from its metric and, to a smaller extent, the market sell-off over the last year.

GIC said it uses the rolling 20-year real rate of return as its primary metric for evaluating investment performance as it represents the fund’s mandate to preserve and enhance the international purchasing power of the reserves under its management over the long term.

The sovereign wealth fund further added that the pandemic was a unforeseen shock to the global economic system and accentuated specific long-term vulnerabilities and trends, which GIC had observed for several years.

Read more here. 

From ChannelNewsAsia:

At least 21 Singaporeans have become the target of an online credit card fraud syndicate believed to be operating from Hong Kong, said the Singapore Police Force (SPF).

The syndicate allegedly used details stolen from credit card holders in Singapore using phishing emails to make a series of fraudulent online purchases of electronic products in Hong Kong.

Fire core members of the syndicate, three Hong Kong women and two foreign men aged between 26 and 37, were arrested by Hong Kong police on 6 July for their suspected involvement in several cases of online credit card fraud in the city.

Investigations showed the syndicate used credit card details stolen from at least 21 Singaporean victims, who had received emails purportedly from a technology and media services provider to update their payment details.

"These victims were then redirected to a URL impersonating the services provider’s website where they were deceived into entering their credit card details and one-time passwords," said Singapore police.

"Most of the victims only realised that they had been scammed when they discovered unauthorised transactions in their credit/debit card statements."

Read more here.