Deutsche , Masdar back clean tech
Deutsche Bank and Masdar have raised $265 million in the first close of their clean-tech private equity fund, reports Environmental Finance.
The DB-Masdar Clean Tech Fund will invest in a portfolio of expansion and later-stage companies, via venture capital and private equity. It will focus on the clean energy sector, as well as environmental resources firms working in water and waste management, and material efficiency firms, such as those involved in building and power grid efficiency.
Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, chief executive of Masdar, Abu Dhabi's state-owned renewables initiative, says: “Completing first close on the DB-Masdar Clean Tech Fund is a clear statement of intent. We understand both the financial and social value of companies that are tackling global environmental challenges; we are committed to supporting them by providing capital investment and management expertise.”
European shift to contactless
The move to contactless cards and NFC-compatible point-of-sale terminals is gathering pace with banks in Italy and Poland announcing plans for widespread contactless card deployments this year, reports Near Field Communications World.
Poland and Italy have become the latest countries to begin a significant drive towards contactless cards and NFC-compatible point-of-sale terminals.
PKO Bank Polski, Poland's largest debit card issuer, is spearheading the move, and will begin replacing all 6.5 million of its debit cards with contactless Visa PayWave cards from mid-2010. Zbigniew Jagiello, president of the bank's board, says: "This will be a milestone in the process of moving away from cash transactions, which will change the payment habits of the Poles."
Mobile hits low-end handsets
The country's largest bank, State Bank of India (SBI), which was among the first government banks to introduce mobile banking services, claims to have developed the technology to support low-end /entry-level mobile handsets for banking transactions, states Economic Times.
SBI's deputy MD (IT) A Krishnakumar, said SBI is working with its service provider, Spanco Telesystems, towards this. Until recently, only SBI customers with smartphones had access to the facility.
SBI's decision to stress alternate banking channels comes at a time when the Reserve Bank of India raised the ceiling on mobile banking transactions to Rs 50 000 (R8 100) per day from Rs 5 000 (R820) a day.
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