| Your Phone As Financial Central
By Elena Malykhina
InformationWeek
April 7, 2007 12:00 AM (From the April 9, 2007 issue) The guy next to you on the train looks like he's texting away, but actually he might be checking his bank balance, paying bills, or transferring emergency funds to his son away at college. Mobile devices still have their shortcomings as a banking tool, but several large banks think the time is right for a major rollout of on-the-go financial management. Citibank is the latest, last week unveiling Citi Mobile, the first downloadable mobile banking application from a major financial services provider. After enrolling online and downloading the app to a cell phone or smartphone, customers can view balances, pay bills, transfer money, locate ATMs, and click to call customer service.
General Electric to Buy Sanyo Credit for $1.1 Billion (Update6)
March 23 (Bloomberg) -- General Electric Co.'s commercial finance division agreed to buy Sanyo Electric Credit Co. for about 135 billion yen ($1.14 billion) to increase office- equipment leasing and lending to small companies in Japan. GE, based in Fairfield, Connecticut, will pay 3,250 yen ($27.58) a share, 62 percent more than the closing price in Tokyo, Sanyo Credit said in a statement today. The purchase should be completed in the second quarter, GE said. General Electric is shifting into more company lending in Japan after the government tightened consumer credit rules and limited the interest that can be charged. Japan's economy grew at the fastest pace in three years in the fourth quarter as surging exports prompted spending on factories and machinery.
Natioinal Gallery extends contract for Shawinigan art space
The board of the National Gallery of Canada has agreed, but with important conditions, to renew a five-year contract to produce summer-long exhibitions at an industrial theme park in Shawinigan, Que. The board instructed the federal institution to produce exhibitions in the future at Shawinigan's La Cit de l'nergie that would be suitable for travel to other venues in the country, Joanne Charette, the National Gallery's public affairs director, said in an interview. Building partnerships with other museums could help defray the costs of mounting exhibitions in the old aluminum smelter in the hometown of former Liberal prime minister Jean Chrtien. The gallery plans to spend the next six to eight months checking out possible partnerships for touring shows, said Charette.
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