Fintech, Finance, Technology, Banking Highlights – 9 October 2018
UniCredit targets 20 per cent women in senior leadership roles by 2022
UniCredit announced a Group-wide target of 20 per cent women in senior leadership roles by 2022 as part of the Bank’s Diversity Action Plan and further to its commitments related to joining the UK’s HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter in July 2018. The Bank will also appoint one member of the senior executive team as responsible and accountable for gender diversity and inclusion in the Group.
Jean Pierre Mustier, CEO of UniCredit, commented: “Diversity is crucial to ensuring innovation and sustainable returns. UniCredit, as a pan-European bank, is enriched by our diverse workforce and we are fully committed to creating a positive working environment where all talents, skills and experience are valued and different points of view can be openly expressed. This is key to achieving our goal of being one of the best employers in the European financial sector. Gender balance is an important part of this and we recognise that we still have a long way to go on that front. We are taking decisive actions to continuously improve the diversity and gender balance across all levels of our Group and the 20 per cent by 2022 target is one clear example of this.”
Further, specific gender balance targets will be put in place for select top management roles, including targets on gender pay gap / balance and on gender diversity initiatives more generally. Additional targets have also been set, both at the Group and local level, such as: increasing the number of women in the promotion process for leadership roles, monitoring short list distribution and ensuring that women have equal opportunities in the recruitment process.
ICICI Bank partners with Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation & Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited to unveil ‘Odyssey City Card’
ICICI Bank announced a multi-year partnership with the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) to launch a Common Payment Card System (CPCS) which will help citizens use a single payment option for their multi-purpose city-level usage.
Christened ‘Odyssey City Card’, this pre-paid multi-purpose card is a first-of-its-kind offering in the city that has been designed to enable residents to make quick and easy payments for an array of services like property tax, water bills, vehicle parking fees and trade license fee for traders and businesses among others, in a seamless manner. The card can also be used for making payments at retail merchant outlets enabled with POS machines across the country, as well as on e-commerce websites.
The ‘Odyssey City Card’ was unveiled by Shri Naveen Patnaik, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Odisha along with Mr. Anup Bagchi, Executive Director, ICICI Bank at the State Secretariat. The occasion was also graced by Mr. Ananta Narayan Jena, Hon’ble Mayor of Bhubaneswar, Mr. Bijaya Kumar Mohanty, Hon’ble MLA, Bhubaneswar Central and Mr. Priyadarshi Mishra, Hon’ble MLA, Bhubaneswar North.
Brex Closes $125 Million Series C with Investment from Greenoaks, DST Global and IVP
Brex, the first corporate card for startups, announced the close of a $125 million Series C funding round led by Greenoaks Capital and DST Global. Building off the momentum from its innovative underwriting and onboarding experience tailored to startups, Brex is further investing in enhancing its features, including its rewards launch later this fall.
Starting today, Brex customers that sign up will start accruing points on their Brex corporate card transactions as part of its rewards beta.
“We started Brex to provide a superior corporate card to startup founders failed by legacy products”, said Henrique Dubugras, co-founder and CEO of Brex. “With this fresh funding, we are able to enhance our growth efforts and continue to benefit founders and operators, particularly those who are unable or hesitant to personally guarantee their company’s corporate card.”
As the only non-personally guaranteed small business card offering in the marketplace, the Brex corporate card has become a critical part of the stack of solutions that powers startups. Since its June 2018 public launch, Brex has been investing in the core features that drive early stage technology companies to its products: instant online signup, limits 10 to 20 times higher than traditional card offerings and embedded expense and receipt management. Now, Brex will in part use its new funding to offer an ambitious rewards program tailored to the needs and spending patterns of its customers.
