Standard Chartered Bank claims digital award

According to report, Standard Chartered Bank has won the “Best Global Consumer Digital Bank” award from Global Finance for the sixth year in a row, edging out 261 other banks. The awards, which was held in London saw Standard Chartered Bank also picked up awards for the following: Best Global Consumer Mobile Banking, Best Global Consumer Mobile Banking App, Best Global Information Security Initiatives and Best Consumer Digital Bank Middle East & Africa. Karen Fawcett, Group CEO, Retail Banking, commented, “These wins represent welcome recognition of our standing in the industry and the progress we are making with our digital agenda.” Earlier this year, Global Finance recognised Standard Chartered Bank as “Best Consumer Digital Bank” in 15 countries across our footprint. Standard Chartered Bank last year announced it will invest USD1.5bn in technology over three years and the wins reflect the bank’s commitment to deliver the latest in digital banking innovation to its clients across Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The bank recently announced it will be rolling out a suite of cutting-edge fingerprint and voice biometric technologies so clients can securely access their bank account balances, cards and investments using their unique fingerprint or voice as identifiers. Reaching more than five million clients, this is the most extensive roll-out of fingerprint biometric technology by any international bank and a first in most markets. In July, Standard Chartered also announced the roll out of chat and video banking in nine markets by the end of 2016 and, earlier this year, it launched a digital “bank on an iPad” in eight new markets; this sales-and-service tool lets clients open an account in any location and makes banking services such as loan approvals and credit card issuance fast, simple and completely paperless.

Mark Zuckerberg Sells $95 Million Of Facebook Shares For Charitable Causes

 

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan (Photo: Adam Berry/Getty Images)

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have started to make good on their pledge to give away 99% of their wealth to public-interest causes. On Wednesday and Thursday, the couple’s two vehicles for charitable giving and impact investing—the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation and CZI Holdings LLC—sold Facebook shares worth nearly $95 million before taxes, according to a regulatory filing on Friday.

The sales likely netted more than $85 million after capital gains taxes, which CZI Holdings must pay because it is a limited liability company rather than a nonprofit foundation.

The couple announced their plans to give 99% of their Facebook shares to social causes in a Facebook post in December, the same month their daughter, Max, was born. At the time, their stock holdings were worth $45 billion.

To fulfill their pledge, the pair formed the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which intends to fund charities, companies and policies that “advance human potential and promote equality.” The organization will initially focus on improving education, curing disease, and strengthening communities, according to its website. The venture’s first investment, in June 2016, was in Andela, a startup that trains African engineers for jobs in the tech industry. Zuckerberg’s spokesperson declined to specify what the cash netted in this week’s transactions will fund.

The couple plans to sell or give away no more than $1 billion-worth of stock each year through 2018, according to the regulatory filing.

FORBES estimates that Zuckerberg has a fortune worth $53.3 billion.