Major Asian stock exchanges widened their losses on Monday in what seems to  be an busy day in world markets, just after  Standard and Poor’s downgrade of the U.S. credit rating last week.

 Tokyo’s Nikkei index fell 240 points, or 2.5% in afternoon trading. KOSPI of South Korea index went down to  6.2%. In Australia, the All Ordinaries index lost 2.2%. The Shanghai composite slipped 3.7% lower.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index tumbled 4%.

Globe Telecom has decided to work with Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank), a strategic partnership with  the thrift banking arm of the Metrobank Group, to improve its electronic banking channels.

In the partnership, Globe subscribers with registered PSBank accounts can use  PSBank’s electronic banking service anywhere they are, anytime of the day. They can also  take pleasure in  doing different financial transactions such as payments, account inquiries and reloading from their PSBank account to their enrolled GCash wallet, and vice-versa.

PSBank account holders who have joined  for subscription, on the other hand, can also receive bank alerts for debit transactions, below-minimum-balance advisories and bills payments, among others. In addition to that, an up-to-date information and important announcements through text from PSBank  will be received by  account holders.

The joint venture will also allow  Globe subscribers and PSBank account holders to use the prepaid service of PSBank for reloading their Globe prepaid or TM accounts. The service is available through www.psbank.com.ph, over 400 PSBank ATMs, and over 180 PSBank branches nationwide. Very soon, it will also be available through mobile banking service.

On Thursday, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas revealed  before a Department of Justice panel a witness to the string of criminal charges it filed against Banco Filipino Mortgage and Savings Bank.

BSP lawyer Sandra Coronel said witness Rey Taguinod happens to  be  the central bank’s examiner who found out the Banco Filipinos’ alleged unsound bank practices that ended up to close  last March.

"Mr. Taguinod will subscribe to his affidavit charging the officers of Banco Filipino with five different offenses under the Central Bank Act. He is the examiner who looked into the papers and submissions of Banco Filipino. He was able to rate the non-compliant actuations of Banco Filipino and its respective officers," Coronel said in an interview.

Banco Filipino has also filed a graft complaint against BSP officials.

The Bank of England still keeps its interest rate at a record low of 0.5% as it balances the risk of rising inflation. The Monetary Policy Committee likely had a debate as they try to balance the inflation pressures with that of a fragile economic recovery.

The pressure to increase interest rates are likely to remain with continued rising inflation, and recent positive data from the manufacturing and construction sectors, though services data has continued to slip back, but still remains positive.

Some economist expect rate rise by the third quarter of this year. Money markets are betting in an earlier rise and expects the central bank to raise rates before the end of the year while investors are paying on a rise in May.

Interest rates in the UK have stood at 0.5% since March of 2009 when the Bank of England slashed rates to an all-time low and launched an unprecedented program of quantitative easing.

Graphic department involved with the new-generate banknotes is being slammed  because of the errors discovered.

Philippine maps and a rare parrot with the wrong-colored beak have troubled the country after the central bank rolled out error-filled new editions of its peso bills.

In the 500 peso bill, the reverse side  features a rare native bird, the blue-naped parrot, with its red beak incorrectly rendered in yellow and the tail feathers underneath colored green instead of yellow.
 
While the map on the P1000 bill along with the portraits of Aquino’s late parents, wrongly positioned Saint Paul’s, a subterranean river that is designated as a UNESCO world heritage site.
 
"Yes, they have made a very big booboo on the parrot," said Jon Villasper, a cartographer who is also a member of the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines.
 
"Aside from that, they misplaced Tubbataha reef by around 400 kilometres and Batanes is not on the map. I believe they also misplaced Saint Paul’s subterranean river," he told AFP by email.
 
Meanwhile, Central Bank accepted the comments and took it constructively.

The unveiling of redesigned peso bills is expected to happen in 3 weeks. The said bills could be in circulation before the year ends, a Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) official yesterday confirmed.

 Central bank Deputy Governor Diwa C. Guinigundo said the bills are still being printed and tentatively the launching is set for the second week of December.
 
 
Last September, BSP Deputy Governor Armando L. Suratos last September said the new bills would start circulating in December. He added the new 500-peso bill would have the image of former President Corazon C. Aquino with her husband, Benigno S. Aquino, Jr.

Incorporated in the redesign are updated security features in order to detect  fake money easily. The changes will be applied to the 20-peso, 50-peso, 100-peso, 200-peso, 500-peso and 100-peso notes.

However,  Central Bank said,  the old peso bills, will remain in circulation 3 years after the new bills are released.

Meanwhile  BSP is also studying new designs for the one-centavo, five-centavo, 10-centavo, 25-centavo, one-peso, five-peso and 10-peso coins.

Central banks make it a point to  change the designs of money regularly to protect currencies from  fraudsters
 

 Following the announcement of unexpected Philippine economy growth for the first half this year, Citigroup expressed skepticism saying that the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) would slow down this second half to 5.6 percent.

Citigroup economist Jun Trinidad said Thursday that the Philippines would have a moderate downtrend in expenditures and production with which the second half 2010 growth may settle at 5.6 percent.

If the infrastructure development in the first half would continue to support its investment activities, an average of P80 billion a year translates to roughly 5 percent of GDP next year, increasing the overall 2011 GDP growth from 9 to 10 percent.

“ So infrastructure development under the public-private partnership could provide the upside risk in our forecasts in case the Aquino administration’s pursuit of governance ideals lead to an investment setting that can entice more private capital participation and support the shift to investment-driven growth over the medium-term," Trinidad said.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is expected to tweak its policy rates this year and the Monetary Board may hike overnight rates later in the year due to potential increase in inflation, Citigroup says.

For a fourth-straight session Friday, Hong Kong stocks went down 0.16 percent as traders were not able to shrug off worried over the global economy.

Hang Seng Index, Hong Kong’s benchmark has dropped 34.14 points to 21,071.57. Turnover was 57.69 billion Hong Kong dollars (7.40 billion US).

As for Chinese shares, it closed up 1.21 percent in the middle of growing signs that the world’s third-largest economy is crawling, making further tightening policies unlikely, dealers said.

The Shanghai Composite Index, which covers both A and B shares, was up 31.23 points at 2,606.70 on turnover of 91.3 billion yuan (13.5 billion dollars).

After the speech of President Benigno Aquino III, his first State of the Nation Address (Sona) which according to  some traders, somewhat heightened  market confidence in the Philippine economy.

The peso was up by 17 centavos on Monday.
 
The local currency closed at 46.145 against the US dollar, adding  17 centavos from Friday’s close of 46.315.

Even the Volume of trade  grew to exceed the $1-billion threshold and reach $1.147 billion. It only stood at $840.23 million last Friday.

"For the first time in a long time, we [Philippines] are back on the radar screen of investors. We should take advantage of that," Marcelo Ayes, senior vice president at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., said in a phone interview.

He added it was expected that the first Sona of President Aquino would give positive impact on the  movement of peso in the foreign exchange market.