“They said a fishing village couldn’t be a financial powerhouse,” runs the blurb on a billboard advert for Tiger beer in Singapore’s business district.
The boastful ad underscores the contrast between the modern Asian city-state’s humble beginnings half a century ago and the glass and steel high-rises that punctuate its skyline these days.
Singapore is a financial centre with increasing global heft: it is Asia’s commodity financing hub, its largest foreign exchange trading centre, and some surveys suggest it might overtake Switzerland in wealth management.
But recent events in the port city of Qingdao, far away on China’s northeastern coast, should cause Singapore to pause.
Chinese authorities launched an investigation into a private Chinese company alleged to have used the same stocks of copper as collateral to obtain multiple loans. Chinese banks have lent Dezheng Resources or its subsidiaries more than Rmb15bn ($2.4bn), two Chinese publications said yesterday. Dezheng could not be reached for comment.