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UNICREDIT PREPARES FOR MULTINATIONAL ROLL-OUT OF INSTANT PAYMENTS

- UniCredit has started testing with the first pan-European instant payment solution, RT1, in preparation for its instant payments go-live
- Real-time payments products will first become available to UniCredit customers in Italy and Germany
UniCredit and EBA CLEARING today announced that UniCredit has started testing with RT1, EBA CLEARING’s pan-European, real-time payment platform. This test phase is a key milestone for UniCredit in its preparations to roll out euro instant payment products to its customer base across Europe.
UniCredit is one of the first banks preparing to make real-time payments available to customers in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) on the launch date of the European Payments Council’s SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (“SCT Inst”) Scheme.
UniCredit customers in Italy and Germany will be the first to use this new payment method, starting from November 2017 onwards.
Jan Kupfer,Global Co-Head of Global Transaction Banking at UniCredit, commented: “The introduction of euro-denominated instant payments will enable us to better support the payment businesses of both our corporate and retail customers in the internal market. By providing our customers with payments facilities 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,with payers notified of a successful transaction within seconds, we will greatly enhance the effectiveness of our services and increase customer trust. Widespread adoption and new, value-added services that optimise the customer experience will only serve to increase the benefits. In addition, UniCredit’s ongoing digital transformation program will be a further beneficiary of our connection to the new instant payments infrastructure.”
Hays Littlejohn, CEO of EBA CLEARING, said: “We are very pleased to count UniCredit among the early front-runners actively preparing to join our RT1 system on the launch date of European instant payments and to roll out this highly attractive new payment method to a multinational customer base. Our aim was to provide the European payments industry with a fully-fledged pan-European infrastructure system from the start date of SCT Inst, and we are happy to see that RT1 meets the requirements of our funding banks as well as of a growing community of fast followers across the continent. Banks from several different countries are currently engaged in testing activities, with more following before the end of the summer. At present, close to 30 financial institutions are planning to connect to RT1 in November while another 70 banks are preparing to join in 2018.”
UniCredit is among the 39 funding institutions enabling the development of the new EBA CLEARING infrastructure, which will provide a pan-European, real-time payment processing engine working 24 hours a day,every day of the year.
Starting from November 2017, account-servicing payment service providers (ASPSPs) from across SEPA will be able to use this highly flexible euro payments solution that is fully compliant with the European Payments Council’s SCT Inst Scheme and in line with the ISO 20022 global messaging standards for real-time payments.
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Bitcoin, ether hit fresh highs

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Bitcoin hit a fresh high in Asian trading on Saturday, extending a two-month rally that saw its market capitalisation cross $1 trillion a day earlier.
The world’s most popular cryptocurrency rose to an record $56,620, taking its weekly gain to 18%. It has surged more than 92% this year.
Bitcoin’s gains have been fuelled by evidence it is gaining acceptance among mainstream investors and companies, such as Tesla Inc, Mastercard Inc and BNY Mellon.
Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization and daily volume, hit a record $2,040.62, for a weekly gain of about 12%.
Ether is the digital currency or token that facilitates transactions on the ethereum blockchain. In the crypto world, the terms ether and ethereum have become interchangeable.
Ether futures contracts launched on derivatives exchange CME earlier this month.
(Reporting by Vidya Ranganathan; Editing by William Mallard)
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World Bank pushing for standard vaccine contracts, more disclosure from makers

By Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The World Bank is working to standardize COVID-19 vaccine contracts that countries are signing with drug makers, and is pushing manufacturers to be more open about where doses are headed, as it races to get more vaccines to poor countries, the bank’s president said on Friday.
World Bank President David Malpass told Reuters he expected the bank’s board to have approved $1.6 billion in vaccine funding for 12 countries, including the Philippines, Bangladesh, Tunisia and Ethiopia, by the end of March, with 30 more to follow shortly thereafter.
The bank is working with local governments to identify and fill gaps in distribution capacity, after they purchase vaccines under a $12 billion World Bank program, and also to standardize the contracts they are signing with manufacturers, he said.
The bank’s International Finance Corp, its private financing arm, has $4 billion to invest in expanding existing production plants or building new ones, including in developed countries, but needs more data on where current production is headed, he said.
“We are eager to be investing in new capacity, but it’s hard to do because you don’t know how much of the existing capacity is already committed to the various off-takers,” Malpass said in an interview with Reuters. New or expanded plants could be used to produce other types of vaccinations in the future, he said.
The bank’s funds could be used to expand plants in advanced economies, if the production was earmarked for developing nations, he said.
Malpass welcomed Friday’s pledge by the Group of Seven rich countries to intensify cooperation on the pandemic, saying it could help jump-start deliveries of vaccines to poorer countries, which are lagging far behind rich countries in getting shots in arms.
Data compiled by Our World In Data, a scientific online publication, showed Israel was leading the world in COVID-19 vaccinations, with nearly 82 of 100 people vaccinated, while India and Bangladesh reported less than one person per 100, Many African countries have not started at all.
Malpass said he was heartened by news about new vaccines coming down the road, and about Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE seeking permission to store their vaccine at higher temperatures, which would ease another obstacle to deliveries in lower-income countries.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Heather Timmons and Leslie Adler)
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Google to evaluate executive performance on diversity, inclusion

By Paresh Dave
(Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s Google will evaluate the performance of its vice presidents and above on team diversity and inclusion starting this year, the company said on Friday in one of several responses to concerns about its treatment of a Black scientist.
Timnit Gebru, co-leader of Google’s ethical artificial intelligence research team, said in December that Google abruptly fired her after she criticized its diversity efforts and threatened to resign.
Alphabet and Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai ordered a review of the situation. While Google declined to share specific findings, the company announced on Friday it will engage human resources specialists during sensitive employee departures.
Pichai in June said that by 2025, Google aims to have 30% more of its leaders come from underrepresented groups, with a focus on Black, Latinx and Native American leaders in the United States and female technical leaders globally. About 96% of Google’s U.S. leaders at the time were white or Asian, and 73% globally were men.
As a result of the investigation, the company also expanded a commitment announced in June to devote more resources to retaining and promoting existing employees, including by expanding a team addressing disputes among workers and their managers.
The diversity component of executive performance reviews was not previously announced, and the company did not immediately share details about what would be measured and how pay would be affected.
Alphabet for years had rejected proposals from shareholders and employees to set diversity goals and tie executive pay to them.
Irene Knapp, a former Google employee who advocated for one such proposal at a 2018 shareholder meeting, said on Friday, “I am pleased that they met our demand from 2018, which was a bare minimum that should have been easy to do immediately.”
Evaluating managers on diversity goals is becoming more commonplace. McDonald’s Corp on Thursday tied executive bonuses to diversity.
(Reporting by Paresh Dave; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)