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COMMERCIAL 18 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 20 MAY 2018 Supporting you through life with APS Personal Loans APS Bank has just launched its new suite of personal loans. The product is designed to cater for a wide range of situations, such as home im- provements, furniture, appli- ances, motor vehicles and eco equipment. If unsecured, the personal loan carries a debit inter- est rate of 4.99% for a maxi- mum term of seven years with amounts ranging be- tween €1,000 and €40,000, depending on the applicants' needs. No front contribution is required since the facility grants full financing. "Taking care of our custom- ers' personal needs, what- ever circumstances they are currently in, is a priority of APS Bank. Issuing this new personal loan offering is a way of confirming our com- mitment towards helping them through life's journey", said Anthony Buttigieg, APS Bank's Head of Banking. HSBC first bank in Malta to launch Face ID technology Simonds Farsons Cisk maintains positive growth HSBC has become the first bank in Malta to provide cor- porate customers access to the HSBCnet mobile banking app using facial-recognition technology, speeding up the log-in process and increasing account security. The launch marks another first in local digital achieve- ment for the bank following the introduction of Touch ID for iPhone users in February 2018 and contactless cards for Premier customers in Oc- tober 2017. Clients can now use Face ID to log into the bank's award- winning HSBCnet mobile app, which already offers Touch ID log-in. The new functionality speeds up log- in times to less than a second. HSBC Bank Malta Head of Commercial Banking, Michel Cordina said: "Being innova- tive with the use of cutting edge technology is part of our strategy to grow the business and continuously improve our service to our clients. We continue to invest in Malta to ensure that our local busi- ness customers benefit from the latest technology such as biometric means for self- authentication on mobile apps like HSBCnet." HSBC is already one of the world's biggest users of bio- metric technology for finan- cial services. Customers can use Touch ID fingerprint- recognition, voice recogni- tion and 'Selfie ID', to log-in with a photo. Some of these features will be rolled out in Malta in due course. HSBC Malta's Head of Li- quidity and Cash Manage- ment, Steve Zarb, says the in- troduction of Face ID means business customers can now enjoy even faster and more secure access to mobile bank- ing. "Customers are benefitting from both the convenience of HSBCnet Mobile and the highest level of security with the introduction of Face ID," he said. The first smartphone mod- el to support Face ID is Ap- ple's iPhone X. Almost a fifth of current HSBCnet Mobile customers on Apple phones are already using it. The bank's Touch ID option will remain available on smart- phones that can scan finger- prints. Another first for HSBC Malta, following the launch of Touch ID and contactless cards SIMONDS Farsons Cisk plc has registered another year of positive and robust growth. Group turnover for the financial year ending 31 January 2018 increased to a record level of €95 million, representing an increase of 7.8% over the previous fi- nancial year's results, whilst profit before tax from con- tinuing operations increased by 18.2% to €13.4 million. The series of investments completed by the Group over the past years, extended fur- ther by an additional €13.5 million invested in 2017, en- sured that the Company is consistently and effectively equipped and resourced to respond to the dynamic lo- cal and export market condi- tions. Furthermore, signifi- cant efficiency gains on the production lines together with various management in- itiatives leading to improve- ments in productivity, and further contributed to these positive results. Consumer demand across all beverage sectors improved during the year under review while the Company responded to the market in a timely and effec- tive manner. The strong performance for the year was also positively influenced by continued eco- nomic growth, complement- ed by an expanding tourism sector, prevailing favourable weather conditions besides various crowd events organ- ised locally during the year. Following the successful spin-off of Trident Estates plc into a separate listed entity and the change in sharehold- ing, the Group has disposed of its property management segment which had been classified as discontinued op- erations. During the Annual General Meeting held on 27 June 2017, the sharehold- ers approved a resolution to spin-off of the company's shareholding in Trident Es- tates Limited through the payment of a dividend in kind by way of a distribution of the company's sharehold- ing in Trident to the share- holders. Through the distri- bution of a dividend 'in kind' of €37,211,000 the Compa- ny's entire shareholding in Trident Estates Limited was passed on to the sharehold- ers pro rata to the number of shares held in the Company. Trident Estates plc was listed on the Malta Stock Exchange on the 30 January 2018. Group Chairman Louis A. Farrugia stated, "I am once again most pleased to report on another set of positive re- sults achieved by the Group. This year we celebrate the 90th anniversary of Farsons brewing its first beer named 'Farsons Pale Ale' at its origi- nal brewery in Hamrun. I am indeed proud to have served forty-five of these years for a Group of Companies that has grown from humble be- ginnings to one that now as- pires to expand and develop in markets away from our shores, and which is actively taking steps to international- ise its business model." Continued investment enables Farsons to modernise its operations and enhance product quality