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Rules on common telco towers expected next week, says DICT

By Arjay L. Balinbin, Reporter

THE Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said the rules governing the shared use of telecommunications towers will be issued by next week.

In a phone interview on Monday, DICT Undersecretary Eliseo M. Rio, Jr. said the “final” version of the common tower policy will be out by “mid-January.”

“Estimate pa lang ’yun (That’s just an estimate),” he added.

Mr. Rio told reporters on Dec. 19 that DICT Secretary Gregorio B. Honasan II wants the policy issued as soon as possible as the government targets to put up 3,000 common towers this year.

’Yun ngayon ang inaapura ni Sec. Honasan… Actually may mga comments na nakuha sa stakeholders at pina-finalize na ngayon. Inabutan lang ng mga holidays,” he said when asked for an update regarding the draft policy.

(That’s what Sec. Honasan is rushing to finish. Actually, there are still comments from stakeholders that are being finalized. They got caught up by the holidays.)

Asked if the policy will include a provision that limits the number of companies that will operate common towers, he said the agency is looking at three options. “Well, sa tatlong options nandoon ’yung walang limit, lima lang, and seven.”

(Of the three options, there’s one without limit, five and seven.)

He added that currently there are only four companies that have secured permits to operate such as ISOC edotco Towers, Inc., which is a joint venture of local company ISOC Infrastructure, Inc. and Malaysia’s edotco Group Sdn Bhd; Aboitiz InfraCapital, Inc.; LCS Holdings, Inc.; and American Tower Corp.

The concept of tower sharing is being pushed by the DICT to improve tower density, which it said is one of the lowest in the region at 4,000 subscribers per tower. Allowing common towers means more than one telco can use a single tower, thereby increasing the number of subscribers being served by each tower.

The DICT started work on a new common tower policy in 2018 after opposition to an earlier draft presented by Presidential Adviser Ramon P. Jacinto. This version limited the number of companies that may build towers, and barred network operators from building their own, which stakeholders contested.

In a stakeholders’ meeting held in August last year, the department presented initial ideas that it wants to include in the policy, such as a requirement that towers be built within a given radius apart from one another.

Other proposals are to require telcos to submit an annual tower rollout plan to tower companies, and subsidies for towers that will be built in missionary areas. Government support is also guaranteed only for towers that will be built by independent tower companies to facilitate infrastructure sharing.

IC streamlines rules on HMO security deposit requirement

HEALTH MAINTENANCE organizations (HMOs) will have to invest security deposits in government entities starting this year, as mandated by the Insurance Commission (IC).

The deposits will be worth “not less than 25% of the actual paid-up capital” or P5 million, “whichever is higher,” the IC said.

In a circular dated Dec. 27, 2019 which took effect on Jan. 1, Insurance Commissioner Dennis B. Funa said all HMOs have until Jan. 31 to comply with the requirements for security deposits.

“This circular shall be used to protect the interests of the HMOs’ enrolled members and to assure continuation of health care services to them,” Mr. Funa said.

The circular clarified that security deposits can only be invested in bonds or debt instruments of the government, including those of government-owned corporations. It particularly cited those that are under the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

It added that security deposits will be exempt from legal claims such as lien and encumbrance. It will also be under the non-tradable account of the National Registry of Scripless Securities System.

In cases of replacement or withdrawal of deposits, HMOs will be required to secure prior written approval from IC subject to the agreement that the deposits will be returned within five working days from their release.

According to the IC, security deposits are counted under assets of HMOs “in the determination of its unimpaired paid-up capital and net worth requirement.” — L.W.T. Noble

Frozen II surpasses original to become biggest animated film

FROZEN II surpassed sales of its predecessor Frozen in its seventh week of release, becoming the highest-grossing animated film ever, while Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was this weekend’s top draw, extending Walt Disney Co.’s box-office dominance into 2020 after a stellar 2019.

Disney’s Frozen II rounded out the top five, bringing in $12 million. The sequel to 2013’s Frozen has generated a dazzling $450 million in the US and $1.325 billion worldwide — putting the sequel ahead of the original film’s $1.28 billion global gross — making it the highest-grossing animated movie in history.

Meanwhile, The Rise of Skywalker brought in $33.7 million this weekend in US and Canadian theaters, researcher Comscore Inc. estimated Sunday. J.J. Abrams’ final chapter in the sequel trilogy is rapidly approaching the coveted billion-dollar milestone as the tentpole surpasses $919 million after 19 days in theaters.

Overall ticket sales rose about 7.2% from the same weekend last year, according to Comscore estimates. But the domestic 2020 box office overall may slide for a second year in a row. In 2019, ticket sales declined by almost $500 million to about $11.4 billion, according to data from Comscore.

This weekend usually lacks new releases, as studios ride the wave of the busy holiday movie-going period. However, Sony Corp. released a big horror-franchise film, The Grudge, a remake of a 2002 Japanese movie about a house cursed by a vengeful ghost. The first new movie to open nationwide this year, The Grudge, was scorned by audiences and critics alike, who branded the reboot with an F CinemaScore and a “rotten” 18% on Rotten Tomatoes. But horror mavens are a demographic hardly dissuaded by reviews. It grossed $11.3 million in its opening weekend, Comscore estimated. Box Office Pro had projected $8.5 million in its first three days of wide release. Those receipts are a solid result given the R-rated horror film’s $10 million budget and were able to crack the top five on box office charts, though ultimately not enough to push past holiday holdovers.

Two other Sony films — Jumanji: The Next Level and Little Women — placed second and third at the box office. Bloomberg and Reuters

Manhattan home sales see smallest drop in two years

MANHATTAN home sales slipped 1.2% in the fourth quarter — and that’s the best news for the market in two years.

It was the smallest year-over-year decline in deals since buyers started retreating in 2017, according to a report Friday by appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate. While home-shoppers are still wary of overpaying in a market where prices had shot up more than 50% from the bottom in 2012, more sellers are acknowledging those concerns and marking their properties down.

“If you want to sell, you have to look at the new reality, the new adjustment,” said Steven James, chief executive officer of Douglas Elliman’s New York City division. “Those who reduced the price met some encouragement and actually made deals.”

The Manhattan market is still recalibrating after years of excess, when sellers could name a price and draw several bidders who would top it. Those days are over, replaced with a climate of rising inventory, a disappearing foreign-buyer pool and new federal laws that limit the tax benefits of ownership, especially in states like New York with high property levies.

The result is that Manhattan sales have declined in eight of the past nine quarters. The exception was the second quarter of 2019, when buyers raced to complete purchases ahead of a scheduled increase in mansion and transfer taxes.

DIMINISHING DROPS
“The market has begun to approach stasis after a number of years of decline,” Frederick Warburg Peters, CEO of Warburg Realty, wrote in a report by the brokerage Friday. He estimated that prices have fallen 15% to 25% from their 2016 peak.

The median price of condos and co-ops that changed hands in the fourth quarter was unchanged from a year earlier at $999,000, according to Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman. Buyers got discounts averaging 6.8% from the last asking price, up from 6.2% a year earlier.

The inventory of listings climbed 9% to 6,643. At the current pace of sales, it would take 8.3 months to clear all those properties, up from 7.5 months a year earlier.

Most transactions were at the lower end of the market, with 88% of closed sales in the quarter priced below $3 million, the brokerage Core said in its own report. The share of purchases above that value was the lowest for a fourth quarter since 2011.

Signs point to a continuation of that trend: Contracts to buy co-op apartments, which tend to be older and priced more favorably than condos, jumped 18% from a year earlier. Median asking prices for condos that went into contract in the quarter fell across all sizes and most neighborhoods, led by a 27% decline on the Upper West Side, Core said.

Sellers across the board are expected to keep whittling prices, possibly as much as 5% more, Mr. James of Douglas Elliman said. And while the reductions may draw more buyers to the market, the uncertainty of this year’s presidential election may put a damper on things, Warburg’s Mr. Peters said in his report.

“We live in interesting times,” Mr. Peters wrote. “But even in interesting times we have to live somewhere. Opportunities abound in New York for those wise or brave enough to seize them.” — Bloomberg

Cemex rights offer shares priced at P1.54

CEMEX Holdings Philippines, Inc. has set the price for its stock rights offering (SRO) of about 8 billion common shares at P1.54 per common share.

“Cemex Holdings Philippines, Inc. announced that the offer price for its stock rights offering of 8,293,831,169 common shares with a par value of P1.00 per common share has been set at P1.54 per common share,” the cement manufacturer said in a statement on Monday.

The company noted that proceeds from its 8,293 billion common shares will be used to fund the expansion of its Solid Cement plant in Antipolo, Rizal, including the payment of outstanding amounts owed by its subsidiary Solid Cement Corp. under a revolving credit facility to CEMEX Asia B.V. Part of the proceeds will also be used to pay outstanding loans through APO Cement Corp. with CEMEX B.V., and additional funding for other general purposes.

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. Ltd. (HSBC) in Singapore is the global coordinator, while BDO Capital and Investment Corp. is the local underwriter.

“A confirmation of exempt transaction was issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission last 11 December 2019. On 11 December 2019, the Philippine Stock Exchange approved Cemex’s application for the listing of additional shares on the PSE,” the company said, and noting that both approvals are subject to the company’s compliance with post-approval requirements.

On Dec. 16, 2019, the company said it obtained clearance from corporate regulators for its plan to raise as much as $250 million, or approximately P12.66 billion, which will involve 13,115,000,000 common shares to existing shareholders. The offer period is targeted to begin Jan. 20 and end on Jan. 24. Proceeds from this transaction will also be used for plant expansion and for paying outstanding loans.

This SRO will be open to existing Philippine-based common shareholders or are in jurisdictions outside the country and the United States where participation is legal.

In April 2019, the company announced it is increasing its authorized capital stock to P18.31 billion, which involves about 18.31 billion common shares with a P1 per share par value. Its authorized capital stock is currently at 5.195 billion common shares priced at P1 each.

Shares in Cemex fell 25 centavos or 11.96% to close P1.84 each in the stock exchange on Monday. — Vincent Mariel P. Galang

Bill looks to establish virtual bank framework

A SENIOR LEGISLATOR filed a bill on Monday seeking to provide a regulatory framework for virtual banks.

Representative Jose Maria Clemente S. Salceda of Albay, who is also the Chair of the House Committee on Ways and Means, filed House Bill (HB) 5913, which if passed will be known as the Virtual Banking Act of 2020.

HB 5913 outlined the following functions of a virtual bank: grant loans, whether secured or unsecured; invest in readily marketable bonds and other debt securities; issue domestic letters of credit; extend credit facilities to private and government employees; and accept savings and time deposits.

The measure also mandates virtual banks to have a minimum capital of P20 billion to be raised in four years.

According to Mr. Salceda, the bill will provide “a clear, coherent, and far-sighted regulatory framework for virtual banks, while also granting adequate latitude to the BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas).

Under the bill, the BSP will grant licenses to operate to no more than five virtual bank applicants every year for five years, afterwhich the number may be increased or decreased by the Monetary Board.

Both financial firms and non-financial firms may apply to own and operate a virtual bank. Virtual bank applicants will also be mandated to maintain a physical presence in the country which will be its “principal place of business.”

Virtual banks are also directed not to impose minimum account balance requirements to “actively promote financial inclusion in delivering their financial products and services.”

The measure also opens the virtual banking sector to some degree of foreign ownership to “ensure that the playing field is open to a wider set of candidates who can deliver more efficient outcomes for consumers, to attract some of the financial technology already developed in other countries, and to ensure adequate capitalization of the industry.”

In addition to the usual risks associated with conventional financial institutions, virtual banks will be required to ensure that consumers are “fully appraised” of both the risks and advantages of availing its services.

Under the bill, the customer is also not responsible “for any direct loss suffered by him or her as a result of unauthorized transactions conducted through his or her account,” unless the customer “acts fraudulently or with gross negligence.”

To monitor the implementation of the bill, a Congressional Oversight Committee on Virtual Banks will be created which will be composed of the Chair and four other members of the House Committee on Banks and Financial Intermediaries, and the Chair and four other members of the Senate Committee on Banks, Financial Institutions and Currencies.

Meanwhile, existing virtual banks or virtual banking services authorized by the BSP prior to the effectivity of the proposed law will be given six months to comply with rules and regulations set by the central bank pursuant to the measure.

According to Mr. Salceda, the bill is expected to encourage virtual banking to grow into a P903-billion industry, adding that “this augurs well for our prospects to become a financial technology hub in the region.”

“Based on the proponent’s estimates, the bill may increase the share of virtual-only banking assets to between 2.83% and 4.34% of total assets in universal and commercial banks. This represents an almost 65,000% growth from the current share, a development that would be to the clear advantage of the consumer, since virtual-only banking can offer more favorable interest rates,” Mr. Salceda said. — Genshen L. Espedido

2 K-Pop concerts in Jan. and Feb.

K-POP FANS will start 2020 right as two K-Pops groups will be visiting the country in January and February.

The first to come is Winner, whose members — Yoon, Jinu, Hoony, and Mino, will return to the Philippines on Jan. 25 at the Mall of Asia Arena for the Winner [Cross] Tour in Manila. The group recently released its third mini-album Cross, with track “So So” as well as solo songs from members Hoony and Yoon.

The quartet last met with their Filipino fans in November 2018 during its Everywhere tour. The Winner [Cross] Tour in Manila is presented by YG Entertainment, Live Nation Korea, and PULP Live World.

Meanwhile, K-pop group Seventeen — composed of S.Coups, Jeonghan, Joshua, Jun, Hoshi, Wonwoo, Woozi, The8, Mingyu, DK, Seungkwan, Vernon, and Dino — will return to the Philippines for the Seventeen World Tour Ode to You in Manila on Feb. 8 at the Mall of Asia Arena. The group released its third full album, An Ode, last September, and surpassed 160,000 in album sales within 24 hours of its release, triple the first-day album sales for their previous mini-album You Made my Dawn. The new songs will be showcased in the upcoming tour, the group’s third, following Ideal Cut which commenced in 2018 and visited eight cities across Asia. Seventeen World Tour Ode to You in Manila is presented by Pledis Entertainment, Live Nation Korea, and PULP Live World.

Tickets are available through SM Tickets outlets nationwide and online (www.smtickets.com).

Nob Hill community offers ‘luxury of space’

A RESIDENTIAL community in Tagaytay Highlands is setting itself apart with modern architectural-themed homes.

Nob Hill is the only residential community featuring contemporary architectural design in Greenlands, Tagaytay Highlands.

The 7.7-hectare community offers 117 lots with sizes ranging from 300 to 722 square meters, giving residents the “luxury of space” and an escape from the congested metro.

Nob Hill is located at the highest point of Greenlands, with an elevation of 250 to 256 meters above sea level. Residents will be able to enjoy views of Mt. Makiling and Mt. Maculot, as well as the Highlands.

Homeowners will also be able to enjoy amenities such as the Driving Range, Bistro Saratoga, Pick n’ Pay, Tagaytay Midlands Gold Club, and the Lucky-9 golf course.

“Valuing environmental sustainability, Nob Hill boasts an abundance of trees — providing a lush backdrop for its homes. Residents will find that circuit pathways, a central park, and a gazebo are just a stroll away,” the developer said.

The community will also have linear parks, a palm court, a children’s play area, pocket gardens, and fitness station.

The gated community will have 24-hour security, underground utilities, ample water supply, 100% emergency power supply, in-house landscaping and full housekeeping services, and 24-hour emergency medical and fire-fighting teams.

Residents can also access Tagaytay Highlands’ amenities and facilities, such as the Highlands and Midlands Golf Clubs; the Country Club; the Spa and Lodge; world-class restaurants; sports and recreational activities; and indoor and outdoor event venues.

Access to Nob Hill is via the Suplang gate, through the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) Batino exit.

At SoftBank’s crown jewel Oyo in India: ‘Toxic’ culture and troubling incidents

NEW DELHI — Oyo, a start-up that offers budget hotel rooms, has grown into one of India’s most valuable private companies and aims to be the world’s largest hotel chain by 2023.

But at least part of Oyo’s rise in India was built on practices that raise questions about the health of its business, according to financial filings, court documents and interviews with 20 current and former employees, as well as others familiar with the start-up’s operations. Many spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation from the company.

Oyo offers rooms from unavailable hotels, such as those that have left its service, according to the company’s chief executive and nine of the current and former employees. That has the effect of inflating the number of rooms listed on Oyo’s site.

Thousands of the rooms are from unlicensed hotels and guesthouses, its executives have acknowledged. To deter trouble from the authorities over the illegal rooms, Oyo sometimes gives free lodging to the police and other officials, according to nine of the current and former employees and internal WhatsApp messages viewed by The New York Times.

Oyo has also imposed extra fees on hotels and declined to pay the hotels the full amounts they claimed they were owed, according to interviews with hotel owners and employees, e-mails, legal complaints and other documents viewed by The Times. Some hotel operators have sought to file criminal complaints against Oyo, which said it withheld payments primarily over the hotels’ customer service issues.

“It’s a bubble that will burst,” said Saurabh Mukhopadhyay, a former Oyo operations manager in northern India who left the company in September.

Oyo is part of a group of prominent start-ups that have sprinted to get as big as possible, fed by money from large investors such as the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank. Now some of those young companies — from the office rental company WeWork in New York to the delivery service Instacart in San Francisco — have started showing cracks in their businesses.

Any fall by Oyo could blight India’s start-up landscape, which has received billions in foreign capital in recent years, spawning other multibillion-dollar companies such as the ride-hailing firm Ola and the digital payments provider Paytm.

It would also be another black eye for SoftBank, which is Oyo’s biggest investor and owns half the start-up’s stock. Masayoshi Son, SoftBank’s chief executive, has hailed Oyo as a jewel of his company’s $100 billion Vision Fund, even as he recently wrote off billions of dollars on other investments like WeWork.

“This is the only company which went global at this scale from India,” Satish Meena, a senior forecaster for the research firm Forrester in New Delhi, said of Oyo. “But as of now, there are serious doubts about the business model.”

SoftBank declined to comment.

Ritesh Agarwal, Oyo’s chief executive, acknowledged in a recent interview that some of his company’s room listings included hotels that it no longer worked with. He said Oyo left those listings up and marked them as “sold out” as it tried to woo the hotels back.

Aditya Ghosh, Oyo’s head of India operations, also said in an interview that many hotels lacked required licenses, leaving them vulnerable to the occasional government raid. He denied that Oyo gave free rooms to officials.

Mr. Ghosh dismissed what he called “noise” from hotels about extra fees and nonpayment of bills. “The disagreement is about the penalties we charge on customer service failure,” he said.

He added that nearly 80 percent of Oyo’s employees had been at the company for less than a year, so training has been a challenge. “We have just grown very, very fast,” he said.

Founded in 2013 by Mr. Agarwal, then a 19-year-old student, Oyo set out to organize India’s budget hotels, which have traditionally been small, family-run enterprises. The company coaxes the hotels to become Oyo-branded destinations that list exclusively through its website; it then markets those rooms online to travelers and takes a cut of each stay. The start-up also runs some hotels itself.

Oyo is trying to expand globally and now offers more than 1.2 million rooms in 80 countries, including the United States. It employs more than 20,000 people and has raised more than $2.5 billion in funding. Mr. Agarwal has become a business star, hobnobbing with India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi.

But as Oyo has grown, its losses have mushroomed. The company expects to lose money through at least 2021, according to recent government filings. Some efforts to expand in countries like Japan have flopped.

In December, SoftBank and Mr. Agarwal put another $1.5 billion into Oyo to accelerate its expansion. The funding, negotiated over the summer, valued the company at $8 billion.

At the same time, two other big investors, Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners, reduced their holdings. The venture capital firms, which both hold board seats at Oyo, sold $1.5 billion of their stock — about half their stakes — to Mr. Agarwal. He borrowed money to buy the shares and paid the venture firms a price that valued Oyo at $10 billion.

Lightspeed and Sequoia declined to comment.

The current and former workers said that Oyo was never an easy place to work but that pressure increased over the last year.

“The culture is really very toxic,” he said.

Mr. Mukhopadhyay, who began working at Oyo in August 2018, said employees were under so much pressure to add new rooms that they brought hotels online that lacked air-conditioning, water heaters or electricity. He and eight others said their managers had asked them to engage in a monthly shell game of briefly inserting these unavailable properties into Oyo’s listings — complete with fake photographs — to help impress investors.

Mr. Ghosh, who left the India job this week and joined Oyo’s board, said that some hotels open in stages and that “there is no padding.”

Saurabh Sharma, who worked for Oyo from 2014 to 2018 as an operations manager, said the company sometimes deliberately withheld payments from hotel owners — a practice that half a dozen other current and former employees also described.

In some cases, they said, the start-up wanted to squeeze the hotel owners into renegotiating contracts that it deemed unprofitable. In others, Oyo wanted to save money and figured that most owners would not press for full payment.

“If 1,000 people shout, we will pay 200,” Mr. Sharma said Oyo managers had told him.

In a police complaint filed in November, Betz Fernandez, owner of the Roxel Inn in Bangalore, said Oyo owed him $49,000 and acted with “intention to cheat and cause wrongful loss” by charging him for nonexistent guests and refusing to pay the contracted minimum monthly payment. Oyo said the dispute was in arbitration.

Oyo’s oversight of its workers was also sometimes so lax that employees brazenly stole from it, said four people who were involved in the start-up’s fraud-fighting efforts.

Because Oyo hotels are popular with unmarried couples looking for places for their trysts, one scheme involved workers at properties run directly by the start-up colluding to keep the guests checked in after they left. The workers then cleaned and resold the rooms for cash to other guests and pocketed the money, the people said.

Oyo has conducted surprise raids at some properties, seizing employee cellphones and checking rooms and records for evidence, they said.

An Oyo spokeswoman said it investigates all fraud accusations and had in some instances fired employees.

Executives have also asked employees to paper over troubling incidents, some workers said.

Mr. Mukhopadhyay said that one night last June, a long-term guest at an Oyo-run property in Noida, near New Delhi, called him. She said three men had raped her in her room.

The next morning, Mr. Mukhopadhyay and another Oyo employee were summoned to the police station, where they pleaded with the guest not to register a formal complaint. Oyo’s legal team also instructed them not to tell anyone about the incident because it could hurt the company’s image, he said. The guest withdrew the complaint and moved out.

In a telephone interview, the guest confirmed Mr. Mukhopadhyay’s account. Oyo disputed some details and said any decision to file a complaint was up to the guest. The Noida police said they had no record of a complaint.

To placate the authorities over unlicensed properties, Oyo managers also gave the police and other government officials free rooms on request, current and former employees said. They said the details were recorded in dedicated WhatsApp groups, one of which The Times reviewed.

Mr. Ghosh said, “We do not encourage or involve ourselves in any kind of bribery or graft.”

Mr. Mukhopadhyay said Oyo’s growth practices contributed to his decision to leave.

“There’s something called integrity,” he said. “I can’t compromise on that.” — The New York Times

Abra Mining elects new president

ABRA MINING and Industrial Corp. has named a new president and chairman, marking changes in the listed mining company at the start of the new year.

In a disclosure, the company said that its board in a meeting on Jan. 4 had elected 59-year-old James G. Beloy as the new president and chairman of the board, replacing the 83-year-old Jeremias B. Beloy.

The younger Mr. Beloy served as the company’s executive vice-president, as well as a member of the board of directors from 1994 until present. He is also the president of Jabel Corp., and an associate realtor and consultant of Melie G. Beloy Realty.

He is a registered mining engineer, who holds a Mining Engineering degree from the University of the Philippines.

Along with him, Joel G. Beloy was elected as a director to replace the position vacated by the older Mr. Beloy. He was also appointed executive vice-president and chairman of the compensation committee.

Shares in Abra Mining ended flat at P0.0014 each in the stock exchange on Monday. — Vincent Mariel P. Galang

China vows to ‘win’ battle against financial risks

CHINA PLEDGED to step up measures to shore up its troubled banks and small businesses while continuing a crackdown on shadow banking and property speculation, in a difficult balancing act that risks exacerbating a build up in bad debt at its traditional lenders.

As concerns mount over the state of China’s $45-trillion financial system, the nation’s central bank and its top financial regulator used the year’s first weekend to unveil fresh details on how to combat risks amid the slowest economic expansion in three decades.

The People’s Bank of China, which has been reluctant to prime the stimulus pumps too much, said on Sunday that it would “resolutely win the battle” against increasing financial risks, underscoring its role as a lender of last resort while directing local governments to step up front-line support.

That followed a statement from the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) outlining a series of measures including carving out bad loans, setting up a resolution fund, as well as promoting mergers, capital injections and the restructuring of high risk institutions.

“Risk control has always been on the agenda of the authority, but compared with the previous general guidelines regulators have used strong wording in laying out very specific, drastic measures,” said Zhao Jian, head of the Atlantis Financial Research Institute in Beijing. “That’s a signal policy makers are beefing up efforts to contain financial risks this year.”

With the economy also weighed down by a trade dispute with the US, Chinese authorities are taking a more coordinated approach to tackling the problems at the more than 3,000 regional and rural lenders, many of which are struggling with a pileup of soured loans, eroding capital and poor internal controls.

Confidence in these institutions has waned since May, when regulators seized control of a lender in Inner Mongolia —the first such move in two decades — and imposed losses on some creditors. Authorities have since orchestrated bailouts of two other banks and intervened to quell at least two bank runs by jittery depositors.

The CBIRC on Monday approved the rescue plan of one of those lenders, Hengfeng Bank Co. The Shandong-based bank is raising 100 billion yuan ($14 billion) in new equity from investors including Central Huijin Investment Ltd., a unit of China’s sovereign wealth fund.

The regulator over weekend also said it will continue to press on with its two-year campaign against shadowing banking by reducing financial institutions’ non-compliant investments in non-standard assets, which are mostly loans disguised as investments. Insurers should clean up investments that can flow through several products and leveraged transactions between related parties, it said.

It said it would improve risk management in areas such as real estate by preventing speculative housing deals and blocking illegal flows of funds into properties. The central bank, meanwhile, announced it would build a long-term regulatory mechanism to more closely monitor financing to the sector.

China financial market faces a pivotal year as it opens to full foreign ownership. The regulator, which reiterated its commitment to overseeing the opening, is in part counting on the sharpened competition to instill more discipline in its domestic firms. Starting with its futures and insurance markets this month, the nation is enacting the most sweeping changes in decades to allow the likes of JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. and BlackRock, Inc. to expand their footprint in China.

The CBIRC also encouraged the conversion of household savings to more long-term capital investments and a greater development of corporate annuity and endowment insurance businesses. The regulator wants wealth management, insurance and trust products to be directly involved in financing and cultivating long-term investments. — Bloomberg

Quality breeds allegiance

Tom Clancy’s The Division 2
Sony PlayStation 4

THE LAUNCH of Tom Clancy’s The Division in 2016 was met with great expectations. As an online role-playing game, it bore the expertise of developer Massive Entertainment, whose previous work in seeing Assassin’s Creed: Revelations and Far Cry 3 through gave it the confidence to pledge the setting of new standards in multiplayer engagement. Needless to say, the assistance that it received from other Ubisoft subsidiaries, particularly Red Storm Entertainment, Ubisoft Reflections, and Ubisoft Annecy enabled it to meet its objectives, albeit not without growing pains.

The cutting-edge visuals, outstanding combat mechanics, and immersive setting of Tom Clancy’s The Division shone from the outset, but Massive Entertainment still needed to scramble after it hit store shelves in order to address the glaring lack of content, frustrating capacity of enemies to absorb damage, paper-thin storyline, and significant technical glitches that all detracted from the overall experience. That said, it bore such promise, and met said promise soon enough, that it went on to become Ubisoft’s best-selling title of all time, generating revenues north of $300 million worldwide and, in the process, ensuring the release of a sequel.

Parenthetically, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 picks up from where its predecessor left off, following the narrative seven months after events showing the devastation the release of Green Poison, a reengineered strain of smallpox, wreaked upon New York. This time, however, Washington serves as the backdrop for its progression, with the White House used by the Joint Task Force as base of operations. Gamers assume the role of an agent of the Strategic Homeland Division and help keep as much order as possible within the chaos created by a de facto civil war.

Outside of the plot, which remains paper thin, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 proves superior to its predecessor in all aspects. It certainly hits the ground running, presenting the District of Columbia as a near-perfect facsimile of its real-life representation and providing gamers with open-world choices within rewarding mission structures. Combat is straightforward, if challenging; stealth and precision marked by care are keys to survival, whether going solo or as part of groups, and regardless of the type of factions to which enemies of the moment belong. And, yes, the degrees of difficulty fluctuate, but, unlike the first offering, stay eminently fair. Thusly, a commitment to persevere prevails; failure is inevitable, but frustration does not set in because insight borne of experience does pay dividends.

In this regard, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 encourages the proper planning of skill upgrades, and in the context of group excursions. Meanwhile, skirmishes yield loot drops that expand equipment and weaponry. Side activities are offered in abundance, but invariably within the context of enriching story perspectives and stakes. For the more adventurous, there is the Dark Zone, where other gamers can and will be enemies — sometimes under the guise of collaboration. Within this area, a separate leveling regime is in place, and going rogue offers the opportunity to appreciate the challenges from the other side. In any case, the interactions underscore the sharpness with which player-versus-player scenarios are laid out.

Significantly, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 continues to receive programming support. A recent patch, for instance, enables loot targeting; map updates occur every day and show specific locations for specific gear. Moreover, it gives relevance to brand loyalty; in-game equipment makers now have items for all customizable slots, thus enabling access to bonuses. If nothing else, Ubisoft’s commitment to keep tweaking the title long after release signifies sensitivity to feedback and dedication to process improvement. Future content updates promise map expansions, talent customization, and further understanding of the overarching narrative.

All told, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 keeps gamers going for more. If there’s one thing developers have known to be harder than generating interest in their products, it’s keeping said interest over time. Clearly, Massive Entertainment is bent on continually cultivating the interest, a decided boon in this day and age of infinite entertainment choices. Consumers are intrinsically fickle, and the sheer number of options available to them taps into this nature. Ubisoft is betting that quality breeds allegiance — and winning.

THE GOOD:

• Superior to predecessor in all aspects

• Combat is challenging but fair

• Continued support encourages long-term commitment

• Near-perfect representation of Washington, D.C.

THE BAD:

• Paper-thin plot

• Absence of a narrative hook

• Still subject to loot fatigue

RATING: 8.5/10

POSTSCRIPT: Silent Hill series creature designer Masahiro Ito over the weekend teased new information on a new title, the development of which he tweeted he is a “core member.” Whether he is referring to the latest release of the immensely popular franchise or to another intellectual property remains to be seen. He has been working on the story and design of Acid Bufferzone, a science-fiction offering of a post-war Earth, since 2014.