South African Health insurer tracks customers lifestyles via their smartphone and office rewards for every visit to the gym. Business d w business im down to Office Welcome from today the European Central bank has a new boss Christine Lagarde no stranger to International Finance the former head of the International Monetary fund at the helm of one of the worlds most important Central Banks finds herself in a difficult situation and many expect she will continue maya drugs cause of highly we did see and super low Interest Rates but that wont please everyone. The new head of the European Central bank hasnt given too much away about how she intends to proceed in her new job but she has given some indication of what she thinks the Institution Needs to do the z. B. Needs to listen to understand markets need not be guided by market but it certainly needs to listen and understand but it also needs to listen and understand people because a currency is after all a public good that belongs to the people we can work going to is widely expected to maintain the loose Monetary Policy spearheaded by her predecessor mario draghi the combination of super low Interest Rates and a massive Bond Buying Program helped stabilize some of the euro zones weakest and most indebted economies in the wake of the financial crisis but those policies have of course been bad news for savers who feel there is no longer an incentive to park their money in the bank and fear they could soon be even punished for doing so Christine Legarde previously served as finance minister of france before taking over as the head of the International Monetary fund both jobs demanded some degree of Crisis Management experience that could well come in handy in her new job as e. C. B. Had. Plenty of financial correspondent standing by it sounds like god as likely as some time before the e. C. B. Needs to change that Interest Rates policy what do investors its effects are to focus on in the meantime. The market is really expecting her to spend the next couple of months sort of finding unity within the e. C. V. Thats deeply divided right now over what the future of e. C. Policies should be so her 1st step is going to be as she said to sort of launch this review of the e. C. B. Policy and there are 2 Big Questions that shes going to try to address one is going to be the negative side effects of this negative Interest Rate policy and quantitative easing as you said theres been a large impact on savers on banks i think theyre going to want to try and sort of find a way to sort of balance the negative side effects and see how how negative those are i think the other question is going to be over the seabees inflation target right now the e. C. B. Hasnt met its inflation target in years but theres a lot of division over how high inflation should really be and whether they should lower that or creative band around it so i think theyre going to try and sort of find a unity around those issues 1st so if you like my drug shes been urging eurozone governments to spend more to help growth could she be most obsessed will the criticism theres theres definitely optimism that she will be able to use her diplomatic tools and her sort of political background to sort of gain unity but its going to be interesting to see if that if that works so far shes been out pretty aggressively calling for germany for the netherlands to sort of resume fiscal stimulus but theyve been pretty against it out just this week germany sort of fought back and said were already spending as much as we can so its going to be a difficult task shows you do i mean france would think you. Lets look a bit closer into this why is this job so important what does the e. C. B. Actually do use a little explain to bring up to speed. The e. C. B. Manages Monetary Policy for the European Unions 19 Member States its most important job is to maintain price stability it also takes measures to promote growth it operates independently of politicians and has 2. 00 main instruments at its disposal the 1st Interest Rates since 2016 they think hovering at 0 percent the purpose of these super low rates is to spur banks to lend to encourage Business Investment and spending the hope was that this in turn would bring inflation up to the e. C. B. His goal of just under 2 percent some economists consider anything under his ass a risk to price stability. The c. P. Can also buy government bonds in recent years its spent well over 2 trillion euros as part of its Asset Purchase Program the idea here too is to provide the eurozone economy with a boost but some critics say the program essentially amounts to a form of public funding and therefore shouldnt be allowed. The phoebes ultra low Interest Rates also mean theres little incentive for individuals just days leading to a cool far right to be raised. In lebanon private banks have finally reopened after 2 weeks they initially had closed their branches during weeks of antigovernment protests around the country the Bank Closures made the lives of normal lebanese even the heart of employers havent been able to pay their workers salaries lebanon is 1. 00 of the most heavily indebted countries in the world and some fear a run on the banks would cause complete economic collapse the demonstrations were aimed at widespread government corruption. And now to some of the other Global Business stories making headlines today the keystone long pipeline in the u. S. State of north dakota has been shut down due to an oil leak more than 9000 barrels of oil off thought to have seeped out the pipeline that has long been controversial sparking regular protests from local environmental groups. Alcoa launches its new streaming service on friday apple t. V. Plus as its cold engine to muscle in on an increasingly crowded streaming market still dominated by netflix but featuring more and more rival companies the new Service Costs 4 1. 99 a month and will be available in more than 100. 00 countries. Do like to snack on salted peanuts all potato chips so how about krispy cricket soul pabst barbecue flavored silkworms they thought might make you faint but not people in thailand where one entrepreneur is very successfully selling bugs in a bag. These crickets must feel pretty special after all humans housed them and feed them Delicious Food what more could a cricket ever want. But its latest at this point that the crickets realize that their Hotel Keepers are actually the grim reaper crickets are a delicacy in thailand and that means theyre also big business ties have always eaten them but one visionary businessman not china town had the idea of backing up insects like potato chips. I heard on t. V. Un said insects were a Good Alternative source of protein for the future when they defeated the worlds growing population so i thought thais eat a lot of insects already out and eat them mistreat food has anyone put them in a bag if not how can we do it and we mean what sort of flavors doing use do we make them similar to the taste from Street Vendors were different. Chanted time decided on barbecue flavor and tom yam flavor a favorite of thais everywhere he also sells silk worms and bamboo worms they become a popular high protein alternative to a bag of chips among young people there and the United Nations food and Agricultural Organization confirms the do traditional value of insects they have an incredible high content of protein but they also minerals and for example also by 12 to tons of insects are packaged and shipped from this bangkok factory every month that represents 100000. 00 u. S. Dollars in bugs. South african ensure if you tell it he is pioneering a Health Insurance that uses Customer Data and a Loyalty Rewards Program to instill a Healthy Lifestyle in customers the socalled behavioral insurance is based on vast amounts of data that is collectivized smartphone and chip card depending on the amount of consumed groceries deemed healthy all the time spent at the gym costumers are rewarded with loyalty points can be used at retailers filling stations and travel agencies. Every sunday morning runners meet in johannesburg to earn points for their Health Insurance discovery vitality the concept is simple do sports and be rewarded with better rights or accessories like smart watches. For. Discovery calls its insurance a behavioral change program. Chris realer is convinced that his behavior has indeed changed. It certainly has. Looking at trying to improve your health trying to improve your fitness. Obviously moving and being fitter you are going to be healthier and the incentives are there in order for you to do that with 10000000. 00 customers at home and abroad discovery is the largest private insurer in south africa those taking part in the Vitality Program have to share valuable information about their private life from heart writes during gym sessions to g. P. S. Data while driving even weekly grocery lists are analyzed by the companys algorithms discoveries at craig nossel says the data is used to verify if customers are living up to their Weekly Health goals only then do they get rewarded. And weve created an Amazing Technology platform where were getting about 5000000 downloads of exercise on a daily basis through integration with apple watch with carmen with center with pono when people go to the gym they swipe a card we get their data so we know exactly who are listening to what people are doing from an exercise point of view and rewarding. Customers voluntarily share this data via a Smartphone App but consumer watchdog sworn that giving away personal information can leave people vulnerable its not only that the data could be stolen by cyber criminals critics say such Health Surveillance schemes could ultimately could tiled personal freedom. Thats it for now for me on the Business Team here. National Business News and background stories of course on our web site thats do w dot com slash business and also make sure you follow us on social media were on Twitter Facebook and linked in for the goal is a quick look at Global Markets at this hour. In support. Of. The reebok. After the for. November not. One of frances top choreographers males of key it started his career dancing hip hop in the streets on this arts and culture will look at this a claim to work by males who keep a gravity defying dance called death. Also coming up. Why this german photographer wishes more of the berlin wall had stayed up after communism collapsed. But 1st another story from here in germany about music neo nazi music because it turns out the far right Music Industry here is growing and concert organizers have all kinds of tricks for getting around germanys strict laws on hate speech they even get public funding for their events by registering as political demonstrations theres a new documentary just out on German Television about the neo nazi roxy and weve got this short look at it. The quiet town of tame out in eastern germany is home to just around 3000 people but 2 years ago tame became notorious as the location of one of the biggest nazi gathering since germany lost world war 2 a far right Music Festival with 6000 visitors