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maltatoday | SUNDAY • 4 JUNE 2023 10 COMMERCIAL MeDirect launches Swift Home Loans Guarantee CUSTOMERS who apply for a home loan from MeDirect be- fore 30 September 2023 will be given a €1,000 reward if they do not get a decision on their ap- plication within 15 days. This guarantee of a swift home loan response applies on all MeDi- rect's retail mortgage products including Home Loans, Green Home Loans, Property Invest- ment Loans and Home Equity Loans. At the same time, Me- Direct will be rewarding cus- tomers who are able to sign the deed of a property purchase in less than 100 calendar days from the date of issuance of the facili- ty letter with a €1,000 monetary benefit. Larissa Ciantar, Senior Manag- er – Mortgage Lending at MeDi- rect Malta, said, "In recent years MeDirect has established a rep- utation for its fast and efficient market leading service when it comes to issuing home loans quotes and sanction letters. We're now backing this up with the Swift Home Loans Guaran- tee. As Malta's first digital bank, we've combined technology with the expertise of our team to be able to give customers a better experience and a decision faster than any other bank in Malta. We're prepared to pay €1,000 to customers if we don't deliver on our promise." In addition to providing this guarantee of a quick decision on home loan applications, Me- Direct's is also giving a €1,000 reward to customers who sign the property purchase deed in less than 100 days from the date when the facility letter is issued. This is designed to incentivise the conclusion of promise of sale agreements into actual purchas- es, a process which can also be long and frustrating for home buyers. "While MeDirect cannot directly affect the legal process- es between buyer and seller, we hope this incentive will help to encourage all concerned to con- clude proceedings efficiently." added Ciantar. More information on MeDi- rect's guarantee on home loans is available at https://promo. medirect.com.mt/swift-home- loans. MeDirect's Swift Home Loans Guarantee promises a faster process for home buyers Superior oar handles developed via a local R & I project could eradicate rowing blisters and injuries for good AUX-ROW is a research project to develop superior oar han- dles, which will address prob- lems caused by strenuous and repetitive movement. Collabo- ration between academics and researchers from the University of Malta's Metamaterials Unit (Faculty of Science) and the Po- diatry Department (Faculty of Health Sciences) and marine products manufacturing experts Action Frame Ltd, has received circa €200,000 from the Nation- al R&I Fusion Fund, which is ad- ministered by the Malta Council for Science and Technology. In Malta, rowing is mostly as- sociated with tradition, our Na- tional Regatta and the Grand Harbour. However, at interna- tional level, rowing is known to be one of the most demand- ing and technical Olympic or Paralympic sports performed on water. Racing is typically over a 2000m distance in which rowers complete hundreds of oar pulls and rotations usually in just a few minutes. Such a strenuous and repetitive movement, unfortu- nately, is known to result in vari- ous injuries, including injuries in upper limbs, the more common being wrist/forearm injury, palm blisters and calluses. This project has attempted to address these problems through the development of novel oar handles with a better and more effective grip. These grips were developed by transposing fun- damental research on auxetic materials to the world of row- ing. Auxetic materials behave in a rather exceptional manner by becoming wider rather than thinner when stretched, and contracting laterally when uniax- ially compressed, a property that imparts several practical benefits to the material. The research path leading to the development of these grips also permitted the acquisition of very important knowledge on the sport of rowing itself, the manner how auxetic materials behave when indented, put under pres- sure or sheared, as well as how rowers perceive their blisters and calluses. The project has already led to more than twenty peer-re- viewed journal publications and a patent has been filed. BOV volunteers at GSSE 2023 THE long-awaited 2023 edition of the Games of the Small States of Europe has finally kicked off with a spectacular opening ceremony held at the Granaries in Floria- na on Monday 29th May 2023. This is the third time that Malta is hosting these Games, following the 1993 and 2003 editions. GIVEN the calibre of the event, around 800 volunteers were needed to support and ensure the smooth running of this vast operation. For this year's edition, Bank of Valletta has given its peo- ple the opportunity to participate as volunteers during the games. Following an internal call to staff, 10 employees were selected and were granted special leave to at- tend and offer a lending hand. Ray Debattista from the Bank's People and Culture function met the volunteers on the eve of the opening. "It gives us great pleas- ure to support our people, offer- ing new experiences to staff mem- bers outside their normal place of work. At Bank of Valletta, we strongly believe in the holistic de- velopment of our people and hold work-life balance in high regard." He went on to say that this initi- ative ties in with the Bank's com- mitment to be the Employer of Choice for its people, a goal that the Bank will continue to pursue through various initiatives that target individual employee ca- reer prospects, as well as provid- ing more incentives such as the Voluntary Occupational Pension Scheme that was launched a few months ago. As explained by Ray Debattista, there is strong consensus among the Bank's senior management that every effort will be made to offer employees full support in enhancing both their career and their personal development. Sports and well-being are a key part of this strategy, also chan- neled through its CSR strategy, which sees the Bank promoting a healthy lifestyle in its commu- nities. Bank of Valletta takes this op- portunity to augur the very best to the Maltese contingent during these Games as well as to Sport- Malta and the Malta Olympic Committee responsible for the or- ganisation of this national sport- ing event.