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Covid passports seen as key to resuming international travel

A test program will begin with British Airways parent IAG SA this year before arriving on Apple Inc. devices in the first quarter of 2021 and Android from April, IATA said. Travelers will be able to share their status with border authorities or present a QR code for scanning.

“We need to have global rules and standards” on measures like rapid testing and vaccination so there can be a “step forward” for the industry, Pieter Elbers, the head of the Dutch arm of Air France-KLM, said in a Bloomberg TV interview Tuesday. The health advances “will definitely help to restore confidence in travel.”

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As more countries pledge zero emissions, coal finance evaporates

With insurance companies, banks and other financiers pulling out of coal “we are seeing a real tide of all these forces moving in capital markets,” Lachlan Shaw, head of commodities research at ANZ, said at the virtual Coaltrans Asia conference.

“What’s changed more recently is we have seen China, Japan and South Korea all commit to net-zero carbon emissions targets,” he said.

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Aviva exits Italian life insurance unit in $475-million sale

Blanc announced in August that Aviva would focus on its operations in the U.K., Ireland and Canada, signaling that underperforming units in other countries could be disposed of. The company sold control of its Singapore business in September and is also pursuing a sale of its French unit.

The deal adds to a flurry of recent insurance activity, topped by last week’s $9.6 billion takeover of RSA Insurance Group Plc in the biggest acquisition of a U.K.-listed company this year. On Friday, Zurich Insurance Group AG revealed it’s in talks to buy MetLife Inc.’s U.S. property and casualty unit.

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