SINGAPORE: According to cybersecurity solutions provider Check Point Software Technologies, the financial sector currently faces a total of cyber threats from three main areas, namely: The SWIFT network, consumer banking malware, and information theft.

In its recently-published 2018 Security Report, Check Point uses Far Eastern International Bank’s Oct 2017 US$60 million ($78.7 million) cyber theft as a prime example of how proprietary banking systems are still vulnerable to SWIFT attacks.

To stay protected against the exploitation of SWIFT networks, the firm recommends that financial institutions implement not only standard security measures, but also “cutting-edge protections which will deter even the most sophisticated attacker”.

For example, in Far Eastern’s case, the Taiwanese bank could have provided full visibility by monitoring and recording all endpoint events – including files affected, processes launched, system registry changes and network activity.

“A solution should be in place that traces and reports the steps taken by malware and that blocks a perpetrator’s attempt to hide their tracks,” says Check Point.

The good news is that banks have now implemented many measures to detect and prevent attacks on their customers’ accounts, such that the number of banking malware has declined.

Check Point however believes this trend has led to malware developers turning their attention to easier targets such as the consumers themselves to avoid the strict defenses of banks.

“As thieves no longer need to break into a bank account itself in order to acquire the victim’s money, this has resulted in a direct increase in ransomware attacks. In this way it is enough to simply hold a victim’s computer for ransom and extort their money from them,” explains Check Point.

To that end, it suggests that financial organisations put sophisticated measures in place to block both known and unknown threats. A threat extraction and emulation system, for instance, would consolidate monitoring, logging, reporting, and event analysis to correlate data and give actionable attack information, and therefore save valuable time for an IT security team.

It is also important to note that theft is not only limited to money, but also the information that banks and credit agencies hold – although attackers are increasingly becoming discouraged as security monitoring and controls tighten, in Check Point’s view.

“Financial institutions should understand that protecting their customers’ data in the cloud is a shared responsibility between themselves and their cloud service provider,” emphasises the firm.

“As part of that responsibility, financial organisations should ensure they patch all known vulnerabilities immediately as well as have comprehensive cloud threat prevention solutions implemented that offer zero-day protection and agile and automated delivery management that is scalable to their needs.”

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BLOOMBERG: Singapore wants its lenders to share data with financial technology and other non-bank firms, but doesn’t plan to force the issue, according to a central bank official.

The transition towards “open banking” can be more successful if it takes place without the regulator mandating action, said David Hardoon, Chief Data Officer at the Monetary Authority of Singapore. “You can come and say ‘thou shall do it’ but then nothing happens effectively,” Hardoon said in a Wednesday interview.

The MAS’s policy differs from the approach taken in Europe and Japan, where regulators have set deadlines for banks to give access to their client data to rivals and to fintech firms. In Europe, banks have until 2019 to comply with the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2), which obliges them to share client account data.

Singapore’s banks already see the advantages of open banking and are taking action to share their data, Hardoon said. “The point being, we are heading there in an organic fashion,” he added. “I believe the open banking approach is a good thing and definitely can benefit Singapore.”

DBS Group Holdings, Singapore’s largest bank, launched a platform in November which allows third-party developers to access 155 of its application programming interfaces for functions such as real-time payments. Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp, which introduced its API platform in May 2016, has announced a data-sharing partnership with telecom-services provider StarHub that allows cross-selling to their respective customers.

The MAS plans to come up with guidelines for ethical usage of data analytics and artificial intelligence that could work with both regulated and unregulated industry participants, Hardoon said. Banks and fintech firms need to not just focus on getting the initial permission for data use, but also to understand how to use that data once they have the permission, he said.

The importance of safeguarding customer data has been highlighted by the leak from Facebook of information from as many as 87 million users, siphoned to Cambridge Analytica, a British firm with ties to the 2016 campaign of President Donald Trump.

One of the key takeaways from Facebook is it further reinforces the point that this is a “very new area,” Hardoon said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. Companies and regulators are “still figuring it out” and along the way, mistakes happen, which underlines the need for regulators to be proactive in guarding against them, he said.

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The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) is offering six oil and gas blocks for bidding in a first-ever competitive exploration and production bid round as part of its strategy to expand strategic partnerships in all business areas.

ADNOC unveiled on Tuesday details about the competitive bid round in which companies are invited to register to bid on six blocks—two offshore and four onshore—until October this year.

Based on data compiled from petroleum studies, seismic surveys, log files, and core samples from hundreds of appraisal wells, “estimates suggest these new blocks hold multiple billion barrels of oil and multiple trillion cubic feet of natural gas,” the company said today.

There are 310 targeted reservoirs from 110 prospects and leads in the area of the six blocks, some of which already have discoveries, ADNOC said, adding that some of the blocks in the competitive bid also “contain significant unconventional resource potential.”

ADNOC will start a global road show of technical and commercial information on the new blocks in Abu Dhabi on April 23, 2018. After the road show, bidders will be invited to submit expressions of interest, in which they will be able to buy data on the six blocks, the Abu Dhabi company said. ADNOC and the Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC) plan to announce the first results of this bid round before the end of this year.

Commenting on the first competitive bid round, Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of State and ADNOC Group CEO, said:

“This approach is central to our expanded partnership strategy, which aims to introduce new opportunities as we broaden and diversify our partnership base.”

Apart from the competitive bid round, ADNOC has recently signed concession deals for producing fields under its strategy to boost strategic partnerships with international oil companies. Last month, France’s Total signed 40-year concession agreements to enter two offshore fields for US$1.45 billion, and Italy’s Eni also gained access to two offshore producing concessions for 40 years and US$875 million. Austria’s OMV will acquire a 20-percent stake in two offshore oil concessions for US$1.5 billion, and the deal is expected to be signed by the end of this month.

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• Hyundai Heavy tests powerful robot that can curve steel plates
• Machines seen as crucial as industry emerges from deep slump

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REUTERS – A majority of the OPEC and independent oil producers participating in a current deal to cut supply like the idea of a long-term producers’ alliance, the energy minister of the United Arab Emirates said on Thursday.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Russia and several other non-OPEC producers began to cut supply in January 2017 in an effort to erase a global glut of crude that had built up since 2014.

OPEC and its partners, 24 countries in all, have extended the pact until the end of 2018 and are considering a deal to prolong their alliance for years or even decades.

“I think the idea itself is liked by, if not all, the majority of the countries,” said Suhail al-Mazroui on the sidelines of the International Energy Forum. The UAE holds the OPEC presidency in 2018.

“The ultimate target is to have this group working together for way longer than those two years than we’ve been working together.”

The talks have raised the prospect that producers could extend tangible actions to prop up oil prices through supply cuts – or moderate them by pumping more – beyond this year’s expiry of the supply cut agreement.

Mazroui told Reuters on Wednesday producers were trying to work out details of the agreement and indicated that it may not include a provision on cutting or increasing oil output.

Asked on Thursday about the objective of the alliance, the minister said the aim was to build on progress made since the deal began on sharing information and building trust.

“The objective is to have this group of responsible producers communicating, looking at the market together,” he said, adding that over the past two years that stronger communication has helped to bridge misunderstandings among the various producing countries.

“I think the level of trust has increased significantly among us. We call each other, the ministers, and the technical people and commercial people in those countries, they are in direct communication.”

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SINGAPORE – The number of upstream oil and gas (O&G) projects sanctioned in 2017 has more than doubled over 2016, but the average capital expenditure for each major project fell to a 10-year low, data released by energy and commodities consultancy, Wood Mackenzie (WoodMac), showed.

WoodMac noted that the average capex for each sanctioned major project fell to US$2.7 billion, compared to an average of US$5.5 billion for the last decade.

The consultancy classifies a project that holds commercial reserves of over 50 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) as “major”.

The lower average project capex observed for 2017 is part of a larger trend towards cost reduction in the upstream O&G industry following a collapse of oil prices in 2014.

Still, WoodMac viewed this as a sign pointing to “an upgrade in industry sentiment” as oil prices rebounding to the US$50 and US$60 ranges saw more projects getting sanctioned on “lower costs, lower breakevens and improved corporate finances”.

Principal analyst Jessica Brewer said: “We should continue to see operators favouring a ‘leaner and meaner’ path in 2018.” The first quarter of 2018 ended with six projects already sanctioned, including China’s first wholly owned and operated deepwater gas project, the Lingshui field development.

However, the industry cannot rely on small projects forever.

Angus Rodger, Wood Mackenzie research director, noted that the saving grace in this respect, is that “a lot of big projects” have emerged on the horizon, particularly for the liquefied natural gas (LNG) segment.

WoodMac flagged several multi-billion-boe LNG field developments that may materialise in 2019. These include the Mozambique LNG and Canada LNG projects.

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Singapore offers liquefied natural gas (LNG) traders a strategic location, infrastructure and a trading ecosystem that can help them unlock regional business, said Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry and National Development Koh Poh Koon.

He added that LNG use is growing in South-east Asia, while environmentally-driven policies like sulphur caps on marine fuel could add demand from shippers as bunkering fuel.

Mr Koh, who was speaking at a ceremony on Saturday to mark the inaugural arrival of LNG cargo for Pavilion Energy, said conditions are primed for Singapore to take advantage of these trends.

Infrastructure is being created to support the sector.

LNG terminal operator Singapore LNG is due to complete its fourth storage tank – the world’s largest – around June and will soon call for proposals to use its spare terminal capacity. Singapore LNG is also modifying its jetty to take vessels as small as 2,000 cubic m by next year to meet regional demand for smaller scale volumes.

The Energy Market Authority has enabled spot pricing for LNG buyers to enhance Singapore’s development as a trading hub.

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The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has issued an advisory to remind financial institutions to remain vigilant against cybersecurity threats, following recent reports of cyber incidents overseas.

Malaysia’s central bank last week revealed it had foiled attempts by attackers who sent fraudulent messages to transfer funds via the SWIFT transactions platform.

Bank Negara Malaysia said no funds were lost in the incident.

“The recent cyber incidents present yet another reminder of the constant cyber threats to our financial sector,” says Tan Yeow Seng, MAS’ chief cybersecurity officer. “It is important for all financial institutions to be vigilant.”

“MAS has been working with financial institutions in Singapore on a number of initiatives to continuously deepen the sector’s cyber capabilities, taking into account the rapidly changing cyber threat landscape,” he adds.

In its advisory, MAS urged financial institutions to continue to strengthen measures to safeguard against cyber threats.

These measures include implementing a layered security approach to protect IT environment and appropriate measures to secure SWIFT payment terminals, as well as employing strong access controls to restrict the usage of administrator-level system accounts on SWIFT servers.

In addition, MAS says financial institutions should perform payment reconciliation and monitoring of SWIFT messages to detect any fraudulent payments in a timely manner.

The central bank says it regularly assesses financial institutions’ cyber resilience through its supervisory programmes, and steps in when it identifies areas of potential vulnerabilities.

The financial institution will then be required to develop a remedial plan to rectify the gaps.

“MAS will continue to work with our financial institutions and industry partners to enhance the financial sector’s cyber resilience,” it says in a statement on Friday.

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Policy makers across Southeast Asia are bracing for a fallout from a US-China trade war, turning their focus on bolstering their domestic markets to cushion the blow.

China’s proposal Wednesday for an additional 25% tariff on about US$50 billion of US imports ratcheted up the tension between the world’s two largest economies, rocking global markets and keeping officials on guard for ripple effects.

Indonesia Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and Bank of Thailand Governor Veerathai Santiprabhob, who are attending a regional meeting of officials in Singapore, said on Thursday the conflict will have global repercussions, even if the direct impact on Southeast Asia’s gross domestic product may be minimal for now.

“The composition of our GDP is mostly fuelled by consumption” and the government is aiming to boost investment to further diversify economic growth beyond exports, Indrawati said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Haslinda Amin. She added that the deteriorating trade relations between the US and China and prospects for further retaliation “is not going to serve the interests of both parties.”

US President Donald Trump is attempting to upend the global trade framework, arguing that China’s trade practices are unfair, with alleged violations including intellectual property theft and export subsidies. Indrawati, a former World Bank managing director, said those differences should be dealt with through the World Trade Organization rather than erecting tariff barriers.

Currency Surge

China is the biggest trading partner for many Southeast Asian economies and an important source of investment and tourism in the region. While large domestic markets in Indonesia and the Philippines help to shelter those economies from a trade war, other economies in the region, like Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, are more reliant on exports.

Indrawati said she’s still optimistic that Indonesia would meet its GDP growth target for this year of 5.4%, a slight pick-up from 5.1% in 2017.

Veerathai said in a separate Bloomberg Television interview that the US-China trade developments are “definitely something we have to monitor very closely” and that retaliatory actions are of great concern, but that so far “the direct impacts have been quite small.”

The central bank has been trying to manage the currency’s appreciation so it doesn’t undermine the competitiveness of exports as the trade environment becomes more challenging. At the same time, it has to avoid being singled out by the US as a possible currency manipulator.

‘Win-Win’

“As the central bank, we have to step in to ensure that the pace of appreciation is not damaging the economy as a whole,” the governor said. “We have to be careful on the impact of currency movement, in terms of volatility and the pace of appreciation on the real sector.”

Malaysia is seeking an exemption from US tariffs on steel and aluminium shipments and to gain clarity on the solar-based equipment penalties, Trade Minister Mustapa Mohamed said in Parliament on Thursday. The government has requested to meet with US trade representatives April 17 to sort out a deal.

Elsewhere in Asia, authorities are also worried about the impact on their economies. Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan wrote in a blog post Wednesday that the disputes would “inevitably impede relevant trade activities” and also could negatively impact his economy. Last year, China’s exports to the US that were routed through Hong Kong represented about 7% of the territory’s exports, he said.

Joaquim Levy, managing director and chief financial officer at the World Bank, said he’s optimistic the trade disputes will be resolved.

“At the end, people see that there are many ways to get to a win-win situation, so we are confident it will prevail,” he said in a Bloomberg Television interview Thursday. “There is so much scope because trade is something that usually expands your frontiers, so that is the natural way where things should gravitate.”

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TMB and KBANK are poised to suffer the most should they opt to accommodate SMEs.

Thailand banks are projected to bear the weight of lower lending rates but the negative effect is set to vary across companies depending on their exposure to SME loans, according to Maybank Kim Eng.

This comes as the finance minister Apisak Tantivorawong commented that the net interest margin of banks is too high and that lending rates should be slashed to help SMEs with their capital needs, prompting a 4.3% average decline in the stock prices of Thai banks last April 4.

“If banks eventually do cut lending rates, they are likely to do so only for SME loans, just as they did last May. Therefore, most impacted should be banks that have greater exposure to SME loans, such as TMB and KBANK,” the report noted.

TMB stands to lose 6% in earnings whilst Kbank could emerge 5% poorer in terms of foregone revenue. Both KKP and SCB can lose 4% whilst SCB, BAY, TCAP, BBL are at 2% due to minimum SME loan exposure, Maybank Kim Eng estimated.

TISCO, on the other hand, is the most insulated from lower lending rates as it only stands to lose 1% of possible earnings in 2018 as three-quarters of its loans are fixed-rate retail loans.

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