US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan yesterday evening. She is the highest-ranking US politician to visit the island while in office in 25 years. China has reportedly levied new import bans on more than 100 Taiwanese products, in economic retaliation for the visit. 


Hong Kong's June retail sales slipped 1.2% from a year earlier tracking a slight drop in the previous month, government data showed on Tuesday. Sales eased to HK$27.7 billion (US$3.53bn), having decreased a revised 1.6% in May. In volume terms, retail sales fell 4.1% year-on-year in June, compared with an upwardly revised 4.8% decline in May. A government spokesman said that the upcoming disbursement of Phase II consumption vouchers would help support consumption demand. 


HSBC announced yesterday it would launch a HK$40 billion (US$5.1bn) fund to help small and medium enterprises grow, hire and digitise. The bank also announced that it would scrap fees and charges on basic banking services, saving customers in Hong Kong up to HK$200 million a year. In a meeting held yesterday in the city, the banks senior management of chairman Mark Tucker, chief executive officer Noel Quinn and Asia-Pacific chairman Peter Wong pushed back against calls from the bank’s biggest shareholder Ping An Insurance Group, with a 9.2% stake, and some local activist shareholder groups to spin off its Asian business with a separate listing in Hong Kong, bring back its headquarters to Hong Kong and appoint Ping An to the bank’s board. Mr. Quinn said any spin-off of HSBC’s Asia business would require three to five years, “cost a significant amount of money to execute,” which would “then have a negative impact on the market valuation of the business in Asia and on the dividend potential in Hong Kong.” 


On today’s Money Talk we’re joined by Asian Fund Management Industry Consultant, Stewart Aldcroft, Pete Sweeney, Asia Editor at Reuters BreakingViews and RTHK’s International Economics Correspondent, Barry Wood.