FNB REWARDS

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Three FNB customers have been rewarded by the bank for being vaccinated.

Since October last year, it has paid out R13-million to the three as part of its campaign to promote wellness. The final payment of R3-million was made this month to a 48-year-old customer on the East Rand, Gauteng. FNB customers have been eligible to win millions by verifying their vaccination status on the FNB App. More than 300,000 participated in the competition through monthly draws.

It’s been a bit of a seesaw week for bitcoin, which fell to its lowest level in six months on 24 January amid fears of Russia attacking Ukraine. Reuters reports that bitcoin plunged 5.4% to $34,310 after earlier dropping to $32,951, its lowest price since 23 July last year.

This took losses from its alltime high of $69,000 in

November past 50%. But it staged a rally, and gained

2.5% to $37,250. Ethereum fell

7.6% to $2,201 on the day, also its lowest price since July.

The number of travellers passing through South Africa

(these include arrivals, departures and transits) rose in November 2021 over November 2020, with a total of 1,053,311 in the former month. For South African residents, the volume of arrivals increased by 84.3% (from 91,418 in November 2020 to 168,490 in November 2021) but departures increased by 93.8% (from 87,179 to 168,973). Foreign traveller arrivals increased by 143.4% (from 152,694 to 371,649), Stats SA reports.

The estimated number of insolvencies increased by 123.1% in the three months ended August 2021 compared with the same period in 2020. A 76.8% increase was estimated in August 2021 compared with August 2020, reports Stats SA. Owing to a cyber attack on the Department of

Justice, source information on the latest insolvencies is not yet available. Total liquidations decreased by

29.2% in Q4 of 2021 compared with Q4 of 2020. There was a year-on-year decrease of

20.3% in December 2021.

Julian Lennon is selling off Beatles memorabilia, including John

Lennon outfits, guitars given to him by his father, and Paul

McCartney’s hand-written notes for Hey Jude as nonfungible tokens (NFTs) as part of Lennon Connection: The NFT Collection. The NFTs are being sold as audio-visual collectibles with narration by Julian Lennon alongside images of the items. The online auction will be held on 7 February. Bidding and registration has already started.