For traders and buyers in Russia or Mongolia who order fresh food from China will see soon the transit time reduced by two-thirds to three days, as the China-Mongolia-Russia international road freight route was launched in Tianjin last month, which aims to shorten cargo transportation time between Tianjin, Mongolia and Russia. It usually took more than 10 days for goods to reach Mongolia and Russia from Tianjin by rail before the international road freight route was established, and the options were limited as mostly storage-tolerance goods could be transported to maintain the quality of the goods. Now the situation has changed as Tianjin is accelerating the construction of China-Mongolia-Russia economic corridor by eliminating the traffic bottleneck of road transport. So far, Tianjin has been connected to two kinds of transport routes, namely rail transport and road transport, which both directly go to Ulan Bator of Mongolia and Ulan-Ude of Russia. "Not only the transport time but also the cost will drop significantly," said Guo Xin, general manager of Nanning Xin Jin Hang Materials Co Ltd. Starting from Guangxi, trucks can exit to Mongolia or Russia through Tianjin port whereas previously they needed to drive extra 1,000 kilometers via Sui Fenhe port, he added." At least 10 percent cost is reduced." "Shortly, our company will import fish produced in Lake Baikal and Russian beer that are popular with Chinese, shortening the transport time will also lead to reduction in sales price." Jia Kefu, secretary of party branch of Tanggu dangerous goods carriage yard of Tianjin Transportation Group Binhai Co Ltd, said: "Freight can directly reach Mongolia or Russia without a double transfer." His company used to trade goods to Mongolia, and goods must be transferred to local trucks. "Special cross-border pass and frontier office will be set up on the China-Mongolia-Russia international road freight route to save clearance time," said Zheng Ping, vice-director of Tianjin Municipal Transportation Commission. The three regions - Tianjin, Mongolia and Russia - are forging closer economic ties as cargo transport lines are continuously being improved. "We plan to set up a logistics park located in Tianjin to promote the trade between Tianjin and Mongolia, and design of the logistics park has already begun," said Bart Kiki G, minister-counselor of the Mongolian embassy in Beijing. "More vegetables and fruits from Tianjin will be exported to Mongolia with a good cold-chain logistics system to form," he added.

Budweiser owner Anheuser-Busch InBev's £79bn takeover of rival SAB Miller is set to go ahead after the shareholders of both firms approved the mega-deal. The deal is expected to be completed on 10 October and will create the world's largest beer firm. Global regulators have already approved the deal, which AB InBev says will create "the first truly global brewer". The enlarged group - which will produce almost a third of the world's beer - will take the AB InBev name. The deal was agreed last year, but in July AB InBev was forced to raise its offer following a fall in the pound in the wake of the Brexit vote. AB InBev increased its offer by £1 a share to £45 a share. Brand sales AB InBev chief executive Carlos Brito said: "We are committed to driving long-term growth and creating value for all our stakeholders." SABMiller counts Peroni, Pilsner Urquell, and Grolsch among its stable of brands, while AB InBev produces Budweiser, Stella Artois, Corona, and Beck's. However, to get the deal past regulators, AB InBev has already agreed to sell SABMiller's Peroni, Grolsch and Meantime brands to Tokyo-based drinks company Asahi. The takeover is expected to boost AB InBev's prospects in developing markets in Africa and China, where a SABMiller joint venture produces Snow, the world's best selling beer by volume. 'Misconduct' Hours after shareholders backed the deal, the US Securities and Exchange Commission announced AB InBev agreed to pay $6m (£4.6m) to settle an unrelated investigation. The SEC found the brewer used promoters to make improper payments to government officials in India and sought to stop a whistleblower from talking to the SEC.

Business sense suggests you try to buy property at the lowest possible price, but that was not the case for one property in Sydney, Australia. It was just bought by Chinese buyers for A$88,888,888.88. The number eight is considered lucky in Chinese as it sounds like the word for "prosperity". That luck might come in handy - the deal comes just as Sydney was awarded the fourth spot on UBS's global housing bubble index. Sydney follows Vancouver, London and Stockholm in the ranking which seeks to identify the world's most risky real estate markets. The lucky price of A$88,88m (US$68.2m; £52.5m) bought 333 Kent Street in Sydney's central business district. Fortunately it's not a triple four address, as four is pronounced similarly to the word "death" and so considered unlucky. The offer was made by Chinese firm Bridge Capital and Australian iProsperity Group, who plan to turn the property into a residential building and hotel with a view of the Darling Harbour. "This is not the first time that Chinese buyers have chosen to offer a price that includes numbers that are considered lucky," Vince Kernahan of Colliers International, the real estate company handling the sale, told the BBC. In this particular case, "the buyer's offer was very close to several other offers. They just chose these numbers for luck and as it turned out their luck was with them". Foreign investors drive up prices According to Swiss bank UBS, the housing market in Sydney "has been overheating since the city became a target for Chinese investors several years ago". The bank's annual housing bubble index looks at real estate markets around the world to spot the ones where the price rise is "out of touch with fundamentals" and "out of proportion to differences in local economic growth and inflation rates". The report said housing prices peaked in the second half of 2015 and since then been slightly corrected. But the growing demand from foreign investors has led to the residential market "tripling in value over the last three years." "Increasing supply and further tax measures to reduce foreign housing investments may end the price boom rather abruptly." According to the UBS index, Sydney is followed by Munich, Hong Kong and San Francisco.

Vancouver-based JDS Silver Inc. has just received USD$65 million from resources-focused private equity firm Denham Capital. The money will be used to complete the construction and bring into production the Silvertip Mine, located within the Silvertip Creek valley in the Tootsee River Watershed in northern British Columbia. Silvertip is a high-grade silver-lead-zinc mine with 30% zinc equivalent grade. JDS Silver began construction in December 2015 and expects the asset to begin production in late September 2016. The company also plans to produce silver and lead in concentrate from the mines. The property has been extensively explored by different companies since 1957. Such exploration programs resulted in the construction of a 26-kilometre access road, 2.7-kilometre of underground workings, 86,000 metres of drilling, two bulk sample programs, 20 years of environmental baseline data and significant site infrastructure. Regarding the new partnership aimed at making the mine fully operational, JDS Silver CEO Jeff Stibbard wrote in a press release: "The combination of our development and operational capabilities along with the firm’s equity capital and strategic expertise has allowed us to expedite the construction and development of the Silvertip Mine into production.” In the same statement, Denham Capital Director Caroline Donally explained that the partnership is a result of JDS Silver’s proven track record, comprehensive engineering and evaluation knowledge.

World Bank officials say they have re-appointed Jim Yong Kim as their president for a second 5-year term. His current term will expire in June next year. Kim became World Bank president in 2012. He has been grappling with a range of challenges, from poverty in developing countries to global warming. Kim had the support of Japan, the United States, and China for his re-appointment. The focus is on how he will achieve the goal of eradicating poverty while working with the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and other lenders. Kim says the World Bank Group is the greatest instrument for tackling global poverty, with unmatched knowledge and financial tools. He says he looks forward to working with member countries to build a more inclusive world, free of poverty.

Wells Fargo executives will forfeit millions of dollars in the wake of revelations that the bank’s sales quotas led to the creation of more than 2m unauthorized accounts. The bank’s chief executive John Stumpf will forgo his salary for the coming months as independent directors launch a new investigation into Wells Fargo’s retail banking and sales practices. Last year, Stumpf made about $19.3m. Stumpf will also forfeit unvested equity awards worth about $41m. Carrie Tolstedt, who oversaw the retail banking at Wells Fargo while the unauthorized accounts were opened, was slated to receive as much as $124.6m after retiring this summer, according to Fortune. The bank said on Tuesday that she would not receive an undisclosed severance and would forfeit about $19m in unvested awards. Less than three weeks ago, Wells Fargo announced that it had agreed to pay $185m in penalties after an audit found that its employees opened as many as 1.5m deposit accounts and 565,000 credit card accounts without customers’ consent. The accounts were opened by the bank’s staff in hopes of meeting their monthly sales quota and earning their incentive bonuses. Wells Fargo workers have tried to draw attention to the “unreasonable” quotas before – some even staged a protest in front of the bank’s headquarters last year. When Stumpf testified in front of the US Senate last week, he drew ire from US lawmakers. Many of them called for the bank to recoup pay from Stumpf and Tolstedt and hold them accountable. While the bank insists that the creation of unauthorized accounts was not part of an orchestrated effort, many lawmakers expressed doubt that thousands of employees acted on their own. Stumpf was scheduled to testify in front of the House financial services committee on Thursday. Many expected the hearing to be much of the same, including calls for clawing back the executives’ pay. Wells Fargo pre-empted that by announcing the clawbacks on Tuesday. The board also reserved the right for further clawbacks pending the results of its investigation. “Based on the results of the investigation, the independent members of the board will take such other actions as they collectively deem appropriate, which may include further compensation actions before any additional equity awards vest or bonus decisions are made early next year, clawbacks of compensation already paid out, and other employment-related actions,” Stephen Sanger, lead independent director, said in the statement. The bank also announced that it is ending its practice of sales quotas three months earlier than previously stated. “While we continue to determine the details for 2017 goals and incentive plans for the retail bank, we are taking steps to accelerate the removal of product sales goals effective 1 October 2016, and put greater emphasis on delivering the best customer experience,” the bank said in a statement provided to CNBC. “We are also making adjustments to ensure that as we make changes, we maintain fair and consistent compensation for retail bank team members.” This month, the bank announced that it planned to end its sales goals by January 2017. When Stumpf testified in front of the Senate last week, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts told him that he demonstrated “gutless leadership” blaming the unauthorized accounts on the 5,300 former employees. “This is about accountability,” she said. “You should resign, you should give back the money you took while this scam was going on and you should be criminally investigated by both the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission. This just isn’t right.” Warren said that Wall Street executive were not held accountable in 2008 “when they crushed the worldwide economy” and are not being held accountable now, either. “The only way that Wall Street will change is if executives face jail time when they preside over massive frauds,” Warren told Stumpf. “Until then it will be business as usual, and at giant banks like Wells Fargo, that seems to mean cheating as many customers, investors and employees as they possibly can.”

Royal Bank of Scotland is to pay $1.1bn (£846m) to settle two claims it mis-sold toxic mortgage securities in the run-up to the financial crisis. State-backed RBS sold the securities to two credit unions, which failed after the US housing bubble burst in 2008. The settlement is with the National Credit Union Administration Board (NCUA), which regulates credit unions. RBS, which under the deal does not admit fault, said payment was covered "substantially by existing provisions". Among outstanding civil and criminal actions against RBS are claims from the US Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Federal Housing Finance Agency. RBS chief executive Ross McEwan said at a conference in London on Tuesday that the bank was working to resolve outstanding claims, but that this could create "additional conduct provisions and noise" over the next few months. The bank's existing provisions totalled $3.8bn at the end of June. RBS shares have been hit recently after the DoJ slapped a $14bn penalty on Deutsche Bank for mis-selling mortgage-backed securities, sparking fears that the demand would cripple the German firm. The NCUA has so far collected $4.3bn in settlements of various civil lawsuits over mis-sold mortgage securities. The proceeds are used to pay claims against five failed credit unions. NCUA chairman Rick Metsger said the regulator was pleased with the RBS settlement and plans to continue "to pursue recoveries against financial firms that we maintain contributed to the corporate crisis".