Deutsche Bank partners with Microsoft, HCL, IBM in tech lab launch

FRANKFURT

A taxi drives past the London headquarters of Deutsche Bank in the City of London, Britain May 19, 2015.

Reuters/Toby Melville

Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) will launch three innovation labs this year, partnering with big development firms to speed creation of financial technology for its own uses and will spend up to 1 billion euros ($1.11 billion) on digital development in the next 5 years.Germany’s largest lender, which is overhauling its own infrastructure, said it would work with three technology partners for the labs, including Microsoft (MSFT.O) in Berlin, HCL (HCLT.NS) in London and IBM (IBM.N) in Silicon Valley.
The announcement confirms a Reuters story from Tuesday, which said Deutsche Bank was preparing to launch the labs by year-end to address rapidly changing needs of the banking sector and its clients.
"These labs will act as a bridge between start-ups and different parts of the bank, enabling it to apply innovative technology to enhance service to clients and

SoftBank to invest $1 billion in Korean e-commerce site Coupang

TOKYO

Pedestrians walk past logos of SoftBank Corp in front of its branch in Tokyo May 11, 2015.

Reuters/Toru Hanai

Japanese telecoms group SoftBank Corp (9984.T) is investing $1 billion in South Korean online retailer Coupang as part of a plan to step up its overseas expansion and as it struggles to turn around U.S. carrier Sprint (S.N) which it bought in 2013. SoftBank has been turning to overseas deals for growth amid a lackluster Japanese economy and shrinking demographics. The latest move comes two days after SoftBank said it had increased its controlling stake in Supercell, the Finnish mobile games maker best known for its hit title 'Clash of Clans'.
The funding, which is expected to close in July, brings the total sum Coupang has raised over the past year to $1.5 billion, the companies said in a joint statement on Wednesday. They did not disclose the size of SoftBank's stake in Coupang following the deal.
Coupang, founded in 2010 by Harvard dropout Bom Kim, offers daily deals on goods ranging from beauty products to tickets for travel and is

Greece will not pay IMF on Friday without prospect of a deal: lawmaker

ATHENS

Greece will not make a June 5 repayment to the International Monetary Fund if there is no prospect of an aid-for-reforms deal with its international creditors soon, the spokesman for the ruling Syriza party's lawmakers said on Wednesday.The payment of 300 million euros ($335 million) is the first of four this month totaling 1.6 billion euros from a country that depends on foreign aid to stay afloat.
Greece owes a total of about 320 billion euros, of which about 65 percent to euro zone governments and the IMF, and about 8.7 percent to the European Central Bank.

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On Tuesday, Greece's creditors drafted the broad outlines of an agreement to put to the leftist government in Athens in a bid to conclude four months of negotiations and release aid before the country runs out of money.
"If there is no prospect of a deal by Friday or Monday, I don't know by when exactly, we will not pay," Nikos Filis told Mega TV.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras heads to Brussels on Wednesday to meet European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

Tsipras, who has vowed not to surrender to more

Futures higher ahead of ECB meeting, private jobs data

By Tanya Agrawal

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell June 2, 2015.

Reuters/Lucas Jackson

U.S. stock index futures were higher on Wednesday ahead of the European Central Bank's monetary policy meeting and the release of private sector job numbers.* The ECB is widely expected to reaffirm its commitment to a trillion-euro asset purchase program.
* U.S. private employers are expected to have added 200,000 jobs in May, a jump from the 169,000 jobs added in April. The data, expected at 8:15 a.m. ET (1215 GMT), is a precursor to the U.S. Labor Department's non-farm payrolls report on Friday, which includes both public and private-sector employment.

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* Also due on Wednesday are trade deficit numbers for April at 8:30 a.m. ET and the Institute for Supply Management's non-manufacturing index for May at 10:00 a.m.
* Investors have been keeping a keen eye on

OPEC to pump flat-out for months more

VIENNA | By Reem Shamseddine and Alex Lawler

OPEC is set to carry on pumping oil nearly flat-out for months more, content that last year's shock market therapy has revived demand and knocked back growing competition.With oil prices having stabilized, at around $65 a barrel, some $20 above their January lows, there's little appetite within the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to modify production limits.
"There is consensus among Gulf OPEC countries, and others, to keep the ceiling unchanged," a senior Gulf OPEC delegate told Reuters late on Tuesday after an informal meeting of the four core Gulf Arab OPEC members earlier in the day.

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Iraqi oil minister Adel Abdel Mahdi said there was "optimism and general acceptance with the current situation".
The group meets on Friday following a two-day seminar featuring the chief executives of the world's biggest energy groups, including BP (BP.L) and Exxon (XOM.N), companies whose fortunes have been abruptly altered by OPEC's decision to

Hope fades as families head for stricken China ship

NANJING, China | By Engen Tham

Rescue workers and a capsized ship are seen during a media trip to the site of the sinking, organized by the Chinese goverment, in the Jianli section of Yangtze River, Hubei province China, June 3, 2015.

Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon

Holding a photo of her husband on her iPad, Chen Suhua recalled their trip to the United States where they spent nine days on a cruise ship sailing to Cuba.Half a year later, the 73-year-old retiree choked back tears as she contemplated the fate of her husband who, along with over 400 others, remained missing on Wednesday after a cruise ship capsized in the Yangtze River in southern China.
"He doesn't look 78, see, does he? I have heart problems, but not him. He's so strong and he swims very well," Chen said of her husband.

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Like almost everyone else with kin aboard the vessel, she knows very little about the rescue operation, and she has heard nothing about her husband.
Frustrated by the lack of information coming from

South Korea test-fires missile that can strike all of the North

SEOUL

A ballistic missile is launched from a firing range of the state-run Agency for Defense Development in this picture provided by Defense Ministry and released by Yonhap, in Taean, South Korea, June 3, 2015.

Reuters/Defense Ministry/Yonhap

South Korea on Wednesday test-launched a new ballistic missile that can hit all of North Korea, the president's office said, developed under a new agreement with the United States that lets Seoul extend the weapon's range to up to 800 km (500 miles).President Park Geun-hye made a rare visit to a missile base on the west coast to watch the launch of the guided missile, which will be a key part of the South's defense against its neighbor's nuclear and missile threat, her office said.
"The test demonstrated improved ballistic missile capability that can strike all parts of North Korea swiftly, and with precision, in the event of armed aggression or provocation," the presidential Blue House said in a statement.

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The launch comes a month after the North said it

Bund yields inch higher, euro holds ahead of ECB

LONDON | By Marc Jones

A man walks past the London Stock Exchange in the City of London October 11, 2013.

Reuters/Stefan Wermuth

German debt yields added to their biggest jump in almost three years and the euro held on to its gains on Wednesday, as investors waited to hear the ECB's view of a turbulent run for markets and its hopes for a Greek aid deal.Markets were generally calmer after Tuesday's heavy sell-off in benchmark government bonds and a mauling given to the dollar by the euro following upbeat euro zone inflation data.
European shares .FTEU3 nudged higher with Greek stocks up for a third day running and buyers moving back into southern euro zone bonds from Italy, Spain and Portugal.[GVD/EUR]

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The scandal engulfing world soccer's governing body FIFA weighed on stocks in Qatar amid concerns its winning bid for the 2022 World Cup might be re-examined, but attention was primarily on Wednesday's European Central Bank meeting.
The bank will publish new forecasts that are

Pinterest To Add 'Buy' Button, Google On Deck

By Kerry Flynn @kerrymflynn k.flynn@ibtimes.com

Pinterest, the site that lets users pin products to a virtual board, has revealed plans for a buy button. Reuters/Eric Thayer

Easy purchasing will be coming to your Pinterest board soon. Pinterest, the site where users post pictures and products to virtual boards, revealed design mock-ups and plans for its upcoming "Action Buttons" Monday at MIT's EmTech Digital conference, TechCrunch reports.

These buttons could allow users to instantly purchase items via third-party retailers all while never leaving Pinterest. For example, Instacart currently posts recipes on Pinterest. By adding an "Action button," Instacart could let users add necessary ingredients to their shopping cart and set them to deliver with one click. Amazon could integrate a "Wish List" button that will allow users to add items to their Amazon Wish List or even purchase directly from Pinterest.

Currently, pins can be linked to direct users to a retailer's website. But by clicking that, Pinterest users are leaving the site. So this move is in the company's interest to keep users on Pinterest.

Additionally, some items can be "pinned" and then

India's Central Bank RBI Makes Third Repo Rate Cut This Year

By Reuters

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) logo is pictured outside its head office in Mumbai Jan. 25, 2011. REUTERS

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cut interest rates for a third time this year on Tuesday, taking advantage of subdued inflation to give more support to an economy that many economists doubt is doing as well as latest impressive growth numbers suggest.
The RBI's quarter point reduction in the repo rate to 7.25 percent was predicted by 35 of 48 analysts polled by Reuters. Previous cuts, in January and March, had also been by 25 basis points.
The reduction showed policymakers recognized the need to put the economy on a sounder footing, regardless of data released on Friday that showed India outpaced China by growing 7.5 percent in the March quarter.
Many economists, inside and outside the government, suspect a new way used to calculate gross domestic product has overstated how fast India is rising.
"With low domestic capacity utilization, still mixed indicators of recovery, and subdued investment and credit growth, there is a case for a cut in the