Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/911593
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 3 DECEMBER 2017 Events 50 Nexia BT celebrates 25 years of service 2017 was an important year in which Nexia BT reached yet an- other milestone – its 25th anni- versary. Over the past 25 years, Nexia BT has grown from strength to strength. The firm, which now employs over 120 staff, mostly professionals in diverse fields of financial expertise, operates from a modern 1,200 square metre of- fice in San Gwann. Forming part of the Nexia Inter- national network since 2007, the firm's client base today consists of local and international clients with a service offering ranging from tax, risk and transaction ad- visory; industry support; corpo- rate finance; audit and assurance; special advisory services; interna- tional client services; accounting and consultancy and immigration and private wealth. "Our strength lies in our tech- nically competent and loyal staff with experience in a variety of sectors," said Brian Tonna, found- er and managing partner. "Our ethos, Closer To You, drives us to maintain a healthy working relationship with our diversified clients' base while maintaining a personal, professional and ethical approach towards clients and staff alike." For more information about Nexia BT's services send an email to info@nexiabt.com or visit www.nexiabt.com Nexia BT's management team – Luke Cann, Oliver Zammit, Antoinette Scerri, Darren Bugeja and Reno Zammit (left to right, back row) and Karl Cini, Brian Tonna and Manuel Castagna (front row) World AIDS Day 2017 - Fighting HIV together ON World AIDS Day, a company dedicated to improving the lives of people living with HIV (PL- HIV), is marking a year during which tremendous strides have been made by the entire HIV community to improve the lives, as well as the treatment and care options, of people living with HIV (PLHIV) worldwide. Despite major progress in the fight against the HIV/AIDS, a number of important challeng- es remain. Since the human virus emerged 30 years ago, HIV has become one of the world 's most infectious killers, infecting 76.1 million people and account- ing for the death of 35 million people due to AIDS-related ill- nesses. Against the backdrop of pro- gress in the HIV battle, where AIDS-related deaths continue to drop, work needs to be car- ried to address the difficulties faced by PLHIV today and those at risk of contracting the virus. Many of the 36.7 million peo- ple living with HIV globally still face significant stigma and discrimination, while access to treatment and care options re- mains a challenge in some parts of the world, and 30% of PLHIV do not know their HIV positive status (WHO estimate2). "As a company, we are com- mitted to a united effort to achieve the UNAIDS goal of having an AIDS-free genera- tion by 2030. Working with our partners, we are making major strides in our drive to deliver real-life solutions today. A world free of HIV/AIDS is an ambitious vision, but by fight- ing HIV together we stand the best chance of making it a re- ality," said a ViiV Healthcare spokesperson. As part of its Positive Ac- tion initiative, ViiV healthcare provided a grant to a Maltese NGO which enabled the provi- sion of free HIV Self-Test kits. Under Positive Action, ViiV is supporting more than 300 pro- grammes that work to deliver real-life solutions, through grants to community-based or- ganisations across the globe. "This has brought innovative thinking and problem solving to address hard-to-tackle yet common challenges that limit health, opportunity, rights and the aspirations of PLHIV," said the spokesperson. Meanwhile earlier this year, the company launched an inter- national survey called Positive Perspectives, to better under- stand the emerging needs and challenges of those living with HIV and their partners/signifi- cant others. "The initial findings high- lighted some of the gaps in sup- port structures that we and the HIV community can help to fill," added the spokesperson. Payment Services Directive 2 to be implemented in January 2018 THE EU's Payment Services Di- rective 2 (PSD2) will come into force on 13 January 2018. This new directive regulates all pro- viders of electronic payment services within the European Economic Area (EEA), and is an update of the previous PSD1, which applied since 2009. In an initiative to inform the general public about the main themes of this Directive, the Malta Bank- ers Association (MBA) has dis- tributed a mail shot to all house- holds in Malta and Gozo. Commenting about this Direc- tive MBA's Secretary General, James Bonello said that, "the updated Directive is designed to make electronic payments safer, increase consumer pro- tection, and foster innovation and greater competition. In our mailshot, we tried to give a con- cise overview of the rights and obligations of consumers and electronic payment services pro- viders. " The MBA's leaf let explains the main changes that this Direc- tive will bring with it. The first important change is that apart from banks, other non-bank pay- ment providers now come within the scope of the Directive. These new payment providers, known as Third Party Payment (TPP) providers, do not hold customer payment accounts, as banks do. However, they can initiate a pay- ment from a customer's payment account held with a bank, after seeking the customer's consent to do so. They can also provide a customer with an aggregated view of the customer's payment accounts held with different banks (always, of course, with the customer's consent). This will bring about greater compe- tition in the payments market, giving customers further oppor- tunities to choose the best pro- viders and services. PSD2 also aims at reducing the risk of fraud for electronic transactions, and enhancing the protection of customers' finan- cial data, by mandating stronger and more secure means of cus- tomer authentication. These im- proved security measures are to be applied by all market players, including the newly regulated third party payment service pro- viders. In line with these meas- ures, all local cards with mag- netic stripe will be phased out and replaced with Chip and PIN debit cards. In the case of unauthorised transactions related to lost, stolen or misappropriation of a payment instrument, PSD2 now reduces the payer's liability from EUR 150 to EUR 50, except where he/she acted fraudulently or with gross negligence. Currently, consumers enjoy a 13 month refund right for un- authorised transactions. This is now being extended to include also payments originating via a third party. Moreover, such refund must now be credited by the bank to the customer's account by the end of the next business day, without prejudice to the outcome of pending in- vestigations.