(AFX UK Focus) 2008-03-12 09:35 GMT: TFN NEWS BRIEFING: Mergers and acquisitions highlights to 09:20 GMT
2008-03-12 09:02:54 Hellenic Technodomiki merges RES units; in talks with Edison, Hellenic Petroleum ATHENS (Thomson Financial) - Hellenic Technodomiki has initiated merger procedures for its renewable energy sources (RES) activities, said the construction holding company in a filing to the Athens Stock Exchange. 2008-03-12 08:53:01 Bollore ready to renew Mediobanca pact, no new core shareholders seen MILAN (Thomson Financial) - French businessman Vincent Bollore, who heads the group of foreign shareholders in the shareholder syndicate of Italian investment bank Mediobanca SpA, does not expect new partners in the core shareholding of the group and is ready to renew the pact when it expires at the end of 2009. 2008-03-12 08:40:59 Poland's Ciech picks UniCredit to manage sale of 45 pct in insurer PTU WARSAW (Thomson Financial) - Poland's largest chemicals producer Ciech has chosen UniCredit to manage the sale of a 45 pct stake in insurer PTU, a Ciech spokesman was quoted as saying.
Horizon Bancorp Announces Internet Availability of 2008 Annual Meeting . Proxy Materials Under New SEC Notice and ...
Proxy Materials Under New SEC Notice and Access Rule 21/03/2008 17:03:00 Business Wire Horizon Bancorp (NASDAQ:HBNC) today announced that the Company s proxy materials for its 2008 Annual Meeting of Shareholders are now available via the Internet under the Securities and Exchange Commission s (SEC s) new Notice and Access rule.
Horizon s 2007 annual report, Form 10-K and its proxy statement for the 2008 Annual Meeting, as filed with the SEC, can be viewed on the Company s website at: http://www.cfpproxy.com/5257 .
The new Notice and Access rule allows companies to furnish proxy materials to shareholders via the Internet as an alternative to traditional delivery of printed materials.
By implementing the new Notice and Access rule, Horizon Bancorp reduced the number of printed copies of its annual report and proxy materials this year by 75 percent, lowering the cost of both producing and delivering these materials while also reducing the associated environmental impact.
(AFX UK Focus) 2008-03-11 09:35 GMT: TFN NEWS BRIEFING: Mergers and acquisitions highlights to 09:20 GMT
2008-03-11 09:10:44 Fortis declines comment on reported bid from Santander for 6 pct stake BRUSSELS (Thomson Financial) - Fortis NV declined to comment on a report on Spanish financial website elConfidencial that Banco Santander SA is a possible buyer of a 6 pct stake in the Belgo-Dutch financial services group. 2008-03-11 09:09:34 Dutch Central Bank approves ABN Amro merger transition plan BRUSSELS (Thomson Financial) - Dutch Central Bank DNB has approved the ABN Amro merger transition plan put forward in December by the by the Royal Bank of Scotland, Fortis and Banco Santander after the consortium took over the Dutch bank, Fortis said. 2008-03-11 09:08:36 BCP, BES mull acquiring Globalia's stake in Groundforce Portugal - report LISBON (Thomson Financial) - Banco Comercial Portugues and Banco Espirito Santo are mulling the acquisition of Globalia's 50.01 pct stake in airport handling operator Groundforce Portugal, Jornal de Negocios reported, without citing sources.
Benefits of Web-based banking
Meghana Reddy doesn't have much use for paper checks, given that she makes most of her bill payments online. That's why the 28-year-old San Francisco resident has an Internet-based checking account. "I think it's convenient to be able to do everything online," said Reddy, who works in finance. Last year, she opened an Electric Orange checking account through ING Direct, an online bank. "I travel a lot and having access online is pretty big. It's just a lot of hassle with paper checks." Internet-based checking accounts make it possible to not only pay bills and conduct banking transactions online but also offer attractive interest rates not typically found with comparable brick-and-mortar checking accounts. While some traditional checking accounts do offer competitive interest rates, they tend to require a high balance that is typically in the tens of thousands of dollars.
Security relies on new technologies
Many data leaks are due to the carelessness of third parties, rather than the banks themselves. They are also caused by sloppy handling of credit card details by retailers, government departments that are cavalier in their handling of citizens' data, or consumers falling victim to scams. But what can the banks do to maintain customer confidence? First they need to make sure that whatever dangers outsiders expose them to, they know who is doing what on their own systems. This requires strict asset management and auditing of access to data and how it is used—but it also needs to go beyond this. Internal processes for handling data need to be clearly defined and easy to follow. It is all too easy to blame a lowly employee for being naive enough to put an unencrypted disk in the post, but they were only trying to do their job and poor processes allowed them to copy the data to the disk in the first place.
SARS braces for taxpayer rush to avoid penalties
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has announced important changes in operational procedures for the next two weeks. The aim is to avoid taxpayer frustration as many businesses in particular will be making payments for various tax types until Monday, March 31, the end of the 2007/08 financial year for SARS. SARS said in a statement it will try to ensure all money due by March 31 is banked in time. There is traditionally a last-minute rush to make payments in time to avoid penalties for late payment. The rush has resulted in SARS having to cope with a greater volume of transactions. Payments related to business and cash-flow cycles include payments for VAT (normally from the 25th of each month) and personal income tax and corporate income tax. A number of public holidays fall within this period.
Nigeria: FCMB Targets Wealthy Citizens With New Banking Product
First City Monument Bank (FCMB) has taken a step aimed at cornering the wealthy Nigerians with the introduction of a new banking product. The newly introduced product, 'All-in-One', Account is expected to meet the needs of discerning, rich customers in the country. .
HSBC website displays security warning
HSBC has reassured business customers that a message on its internet banking site is not a security risk after an SSL certificate on a US server expired. UK business bankers visiting the online banking suite were greeted by a message, which caused concern. It said: "www.ukbusiness.com is a site that uses a security certificate to encrypt data during transmission, but its certificate expired on 04/03/2008 23:59." It then asked if customers would like to continue anyway? But HSBC has reassured customers that there was no security risk for them. A spokesman said the SSL certificate was used only to protect the security message that the bank has on its website. "The certificate is not managing any data encryption or security it just allows the [standard] security message to be displayed and allows us to change this message if we need to." .
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