Selected Roles and Functions of the MAS

The MAS performs five oversight functions
(MAS' Roles and Responsibilities in Relation to Securities Clearing and Settlement Systems in Singapore , August 2004), namely:

• Regulation
• Authorisation
• Supervision
• Surveillance
• Enforcement

Regulation

As a regulator, the MAS determines the scope of financial services activities that should be regulated, and sets the rules and standards governing the behaviour of financial markets and institutions. The MAS' prudential regulation focuses on the safety and soundness of financial institutions, seeking to safeguard the value of the assets that underpin the ability of these institutions to fulfill their financial contracts, such as bank deposits and insurance policies. It involves setting risk-based capital and prudential requirements. The MAS' market conduct regulation focuses on how financial firms and their representatives carry out business dealings with consumers, and seeks to promote fair-dealing. It involves setting requirements and standards for sound business conduct practices.

Fitness Bulletin

Instant Energy

Need a lift?
Training with weights can pump you up mentally, say University of Georgia scientists. In a recent study, sedentary people who said they felt tired reported significantly more energy right after they hoisted iron.

Exercise can cause your brain to release mood-improving chemicals, which may tirgger the boost, says study author Matthew Herring.

How much is enough? The participants did only 12 sets a session.


Nature's Protein Shake

British researchers found that lifters who drank 890ml of milk following a workout experienced less muscle damage than those who skipped the beverage.

The protein and carbohydrates in milk appeared to inhibit muscle breakdown and may also reduce inflammation.

Speed your workout recovery with this effect.

Pi

Pi is a characteristic of circles.

It is defined as the ratio between the circumference and the diameter of any given circle; this ratio is the same regardless of the size of the circle.

If you draw a circle (of any size) and measure circumference by the measured diameter.

Depending on the accuracy of your drawing and measurement, pi is about 3.1415927...*.

Since pi is the same for all circles, you can calculate (instead of measure) the circumference of any circle by simply multiplying the diameter with this constant

Definition of pi :


pi = circumferencce /diameter


Note : 22/7 is just an approximation of what pi really is.

Since the diameter is twice the radius, thus

Pi = circumference /2. radius

Hence we arrive at the following formula for the circumference of a circle:

circumference = pi . diameter
= pi . 2 . radius

Particles of Matter

Quick Revision - States of Matter

Boiling Point : corresponds to a flat section on a temperature-time graph and is the temperature when all the liquid becomes a gas or vapour.

Liquid : changes shape according to its container. Particles further apart than in a solid with greater energy and movement.

Gas : particles farthest apart with greatest movement and energy. Forces between gaseous particles are weak.

Melting point : corresponds to a flat section on a temperature-time graph and is the temperature when all the solid becomes a liquid.

Solid : fixed shape and volume with particles vibrating about fixed positions.

Crystal : a solid with a regular arrangement of particles.

Sublimation : changing directly from a solid to a gas (or vice versa) with no liquid state e. g. ammonium salts, solid carbon dioxide.

Evaporation : chaging to a vapour state at temperatures below boiling point. Volatile liquids evaporate easily.

Diffusion : natural movement of particles that takes place quickly in gases as there is plenty of space.

Kinectic Theory : all particles in matter are moving around with kinetic energy.

Particles :

Atoms : particles of an elements.

aluminium Al
barium Ba
boron B
bromine Br
carbon C
calcium Ca
chlorine Cl
copper Cu
fluorine F
helium He
hydrogen H
iodine I
iron Fe
lead Pb
magnesium Mg
neon Ne
nitrogen N
oxygen O
phosphorus P
potassium K
silver Ag
sodium Na
sulphur S
zinc Zn

Molecules : particles of a compound made up of groups of atoms.

diatomic :

oxygen gas O2
hydrogen gas H2
nitrogen gas N2
chlorine gas Cl2

triatomic :

carbon diaoxide gas CO2
water H2O

Self test.

1. An _______ is a substance which cannot be split into two or more simpler substances. Such substances are made up of particles called _____________ .

Pain-Free Knees

After all these years spent carrying you around, your knees may be starting to fight back - with creaks, aches, and stiffness. Of course, the ideal situation is to prevent knee problems in the first place. The best way?

Keep your weight down. In fact losing just seven kilograms can cut knee pain in half for overweight arthritis suffers.

"I've seen people with their knees going bad, and the rate of deterioration decreased significantly when they lost weight", says Dr John Reveille, a professor of medicine at the University of Texas.

Here, more strategies that can help ease pain:

Have your feet checked "People with bad feet or those who roll the foot outward while walking or running develop knee pain that doesn't necessarily reflect knee damage," says Dr Reveille. Go to a good athletic-shoe store and ask a staffer to evaluate your gait and your shoes' wear pattern. Orthotics or physical therapy can compensate.

Build muscle Staying active can build knee-protecting muscles. "A joint with a conditioned muscle around it is far more able to absorb stresses, " says Dr Reveille. But avoid exercises that put excessive strain on the knee, such as squats and jogging.

Apply ice or heat "Ice is one of nature's painkillers, " says Dr Wayne M Goldstein, a professor of orthopaedics at the University of Illinois. "It will help reduce inflammation." Use ice for acute, occational pain and apply heat for more chronic aches.

Try medicine Ibuprofen and other anti-inflammatory drugs may help temporarily. Osteoarthritis sufferers can also try supplements such as glucosamine and chondroitin.

Central Problem of Economic Societies

Introduction

1. We have heard and read about concepts of Economics such as inflation, recession, taxationa and balance of payments.

2. There is no one definition of Economics. Basically, it deals with how scarce resources are allocated to maximize the unlimited wants that we want to fufil. It is more important to understand the basic concepts rather than to memorize the definition. What is important in Economics is to analyse these concepts thoroughly. For example, we should ask what taxes are why the government taxes people, why the government cannot mint money indiscriminately, what the various types of taxes are and what the government does with revenue from taxes.

3. Economics is important to the:

(a) individual (as a consumer who wants to maximize satisfaction and minimize expenditure);
(b) businessman (as a producer who wants to maximize profits and minimize costs); and
(c) government (to provide a high standard of living for the people).

Introductory Guide - Law of Trusts - What is a trust?

Introduction

Trust is a gripping subject. Unfortunately it grips most students with anxiety. There is a good reason for this. It is difficult. Almost every topic in the law of trusts is complicated by demanding intellectual problems, about the correct solutions to which academics and judges alike disagree. Because this is the case, you will realize in the study of the law of trusts, that there is no one right answer. It is about deciding which is the best solution for a particular problem, and because there is so much disagreement in what the correct answer is, it really is a free for all.



As a student of the law of trusts you will be required to undertake an academic marathon of reading judgments and academic opinions on almost every topic. There is no simple way to study the law of trusts,. If you want to write a really good exam script in the subject, i.e. get a first, you will simply have to read some cases.



Trusts laws a judge made, that is they are created by judges over time deciding actual cases, building up the body of rules and principles we today recognize as trust laws. As such, readng the cases are very important because this is the actual source of the law of trusts. Text-books are also important because here, you will be given an interpretation by the author of the laws decided in the cases.

What is a trust?

A trust is a legal device contains both elements of the law of obligations and elements of the law of property. In some ways trusts are like contracts and some other ways they mimic the structure of other sorts of property relationships under the law. But trusts are unique, and it is very difficult to get an intuitive feel for the way that the law of trusts responds to particular problems as they arise.



At its simplest, a trust is a device in which rights (usually property rights) are held by one person on behalf of another.



Generally there will be a three party relationship :-

Settlor/testator - the person creating the trust

Trustee - the person holding the rights to the property

Beneficiary - the person for whom the rights are held



Much of the law of trust is concerned with the question of whether a valid trust has been created. Throughout this subject, you will be looking at this question in various different situations.



A trust is not a legal person, like an individual or a company capable of owning property. For there to be a trust, the property must be subject to a trust so that the property will be vested in a trustee or trustees (who may be individual or companies) or is a nominee on behalf of the trust.

Many attempts have been made to define a trust but none of these definitions are entirely satisafactory. Trust is probably the most important invention made by equity and it calls for the distinction between legal interest or legal estate and the equitable interest in property.

Under the trust, the legal title will be vested in the trustees and the equitable title in the beneficiaries. This might arise when the settlor transfer land to the trustee to hold the land on trust for benefit of A, B and C (beneficiaries).