Ripple company has announced new project which is going to be based on xRapid platform – a platform for instant transactions. The project instantly caught the eye of the Fleetcor Technologies company’s officials. This company is owned by the Cambridge Global Payments. The company agreed to test the system.

“We are excited for the insights this pilot program is expected to deliver, and we will use that information to help both Cambridge and FLEETCOR develop our use cases for blockchain in international payments,” said Mark Frey - COO at Cambridge Global Payments.

And, although big banks are trying to avoid working with XRP, there are a lot of other financial companies, who don’t mind having to be bothered with conversion during international transactions.

Beginning of March in Italy is going to be marked by general elections. And there is a strong possibility that ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is going to make a comeback. And this is not good for the country, as Berlusconi is not exactly known for his ethics and right political choices.

Mostly Silvio is known around the world for his sexual harassment allegations and his friendship with Russia. And, while the first point is just bad for the image of the country the latter can have a bad outcome for the whole world. This year Italy is presiding in OSCE – an organization which is directly involved in one of the Russia-made conflict – the east of Ukraine. And the coordination between OSCE head and country with aggressive international policy is going to be bad.

And, although Berlusconi himself cannot be elected into the parliament, because he was sued, he might as well become the “grey figure” behind Italian parliament. For now, Berlusconi is going into meetings with Angela Merkel and Jean-Claude Juncker and everyone understands that if his party is to win, he will be the man of power. The actual seat will most likely be taken by a toy-figure in his hands.

Tarak Ben Ammar, Lance Maerov and Bob Weinstein – the remaining board members of the film production Weinstein Co. have confirmed that the company sold the assets to the investor group led by Maria Contreras-Sweet and Ron Burkle.

The statement, issued by the three read: We are pleased to announce that we have entered into an agreement to sell the assets of The Weinstein Company to an investor group led by Maria Contreras-Sweet and Ron Burkle,” said the Board. “The deal provides a clear path for compensation for victims and protects the jobs of our employees. We greatly appreciate the efforts of Attorney General Schneiderman and his staff, Maria Contreras-Sweet, Ron Burkle and his team at Yucaipa for bringing about this agreement. We consider this to be a positive outcome under what have been incredibly difficult circumstances.”

Weinstein Co almost went bankrupt because of the sexual harassment allegations, issued against company’s co-founder Harvey Weinstein.

Today’s situation with Asian markets is strongly resembling the situation that was ongoing in the beginning of February, when the numbers started unexpectedly crushing. Although yen is holding on pretty strong, having even gained value.

MSCI Asia Pacific fell 0.9 percent.

Topix lost 1.8 percent.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng went down 1.6 percent.

Kospi also lost 1 percent. All and all a situation in the markets is looking quite bad today even for the greenback, that didn’t get much od the points and room for growth.

Yen rose against the statement made by Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda. The statement concerned the right timing for the probable exit from the stimulus policy. This resulted in the 0.3 percent rise for the Japanese currency – 105.92 yen per dollar is the exchange point for today.

Euro fell less than 0.05 percent, which brought it to the point of $1.2261 per euro.

Gold is almost unchanged - +0.05 percent with the price of $1.317.25 per ounce.

Silver is in the loss today, as it was during the whole week – 16.396 against yesterday’s 16.434 USD per ounce.

WTI immediate cruse costs 0.05 percent less - $60.97 per barrel.