The Real-Time Rail Build is on Track for Completion in Q3 2025
'The system build is on track to be finished in Q3 2025, which is a huge accomplishment for the program' said Pinto. 'This milestone highlights the progress we've made in developing a system built in Canada for Canada and reflects the strength of our collaborative delivery approach.'
Pinto was joined on the mainstage of The Payments Canada SUMMIT by representatives from the RTR delivery partners: John Collinson of Interac, Rob Mayer of CGI, Jeff Mulholland of IBM Canada and Todd Roberts of Deloitte Canada. They discussed their collaborative approach to delivering the RTR as a unified team and together reaffirmed that the RTR build is tracking towards completion in Q3 of this year, as planned.
Once the RTR is built, the testing phase is set to occur through 2025 and 2026, paving the way for a robust and reliable system that meets the needs of Canadians. The RTR will be launched once the testing phase has been successfully completed.
Real-time payments and the RTR proved to be topics of interest at The 2025 SUMMIT, with several panelists and speakers addressing the strong progress of the build and the transformation the system will bring to the payment ecosystem.
The SUMMIT, hosted by Payments Canada, is Canada's annual premier payment event. For over 20 years, The SUMMIT has been the place to engage with exciting ideas and connect with the best leaders and innovators from across the ecosystem.
The 2026 Payments Canada SUMMIT will be back at Toronto's Automotive Building from May 5 to 7. Subscribe to The SUMMIT newsletter for exclusive updates on Canada's premier payments event.
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The Independent
15 minutes ago
- The Independent
Faith-based activist groups celebrate after Costco bails on selling abortion pill
Costco has opted not to dispense abortion pills after receiving demands from activists on both sides of the issue — and faith-based groups are celebrating the move. Last year, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander urged the retail giant to get a certification to be able to dispense mifepristone — one drug in a two-drug regimen for medication abortions — at its pharmacies. The following month a religious coalition pleaded with Costco not to sell the termination pill. The FDA allows only certified prescribers to dispense mifepristone. Costco chose to forego pursuing this certification, the company said in a statement to Reuters emphasizing the decision was based on a lack of consumer demand. "Our position at this time not to sell mifepristone, which has not changed, is based on the lack of demand from our members and other patients, who we understand generally have the drug dispensed by their medical providers,' the company said. Bloomberg first reported Costco's decision. The Independent has reached out to Costco for more information about its decision. Representatives on both sides of the abortion debate have battled over Costco's position in the form of letters. Last July, Lander penned a letter to CEO Ron Vachris demanding the retailer 'immediately take the necessary steps to receive certification' to sell mifepristone, following in the steps of CVS and Walgreens. The comptroller also wrote letters to the leaders of Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons, and McKesson. 'By failing to become certified mifepristone dispensers, these pharmacy giants put both women's reproductive health care and investors' money at risk,' he said in a statement at the time. In August 2024, a coalition of religious activists wrote to Vachris, urging Costco to 'continue its current practice of not dispensing the abortion drug mifepristone.' The group argued that dispensing the drug will reduce demand for the diapers and formula that the store sells and worsen the 'the crisis of record low birth rates.' The letter also alleged the pill poses 'serious health risks.' The FDA first approved the drug in 2000 to end pregnancy through 10 weeks of gestation, but anti-abortion activists have recently challenged its safety and FDA approval. Last year, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled to preserve access to the crucial drug, as nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the U.S. — 63 percent — are medication abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute. 'Costco's decision to refuse to dispense mifepristone is disappointing and short-sighted,' a spokesperson for Lander told The Independent in a statement. Failure to provide access to proven safe and FDA-approved medication under the guise of 'weak demand' risks isolating customers and undermines the company's credibility. Putting customer needs before political ideology must remain Costco's priority.' Faith-based activists have celebrated the decision. 'We applaud Costco for doing the right thing by its shareholders and resisting activist calls to sell abortion drugs,' Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Michael Ross said in a statement Thursday. 'They have nothing to gain and much to lose by becoming abortion dispensaries.' 'We have this momentum,' Tim Schwarzenberger, director of corporate engagement at Inspire Investing, the world's largest faith-based ETF provider, told Bloomberg. 'Now there is a chance to turn to some of the other retailers.' 'We are so grateful that Costco—a company that serves families, especially large ones—has decided to remain a wholesale store, not become an abortion facility,' Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at evangelical think-tank Family Research Council, said in a statement on X. 'What a win for America! Great job, @Costco!" CVS and Walgreens, which both dispense the drug, have stood by their decisions in the wake of Costco's announcement. 'We have a long history of supporting and advancing women's health and we remain focused on meeting their unique health needs. This includes providing access to safe, legal, and evidence-based reproductive health services,' CVS told The Independent in a statement, noting that the company fills prescriptions in states where it's legal. Walgreens declined to comment. Its website states: "The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on mifepristone access allows Walgreens to continue to dispense mifepristone under the FDA guidelines.' The abortion landscape has been complicated after the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022. In January 2023, the FDA removed some restrictions around accessing mifepristone and added the pharmacy certification. Individuals living in states that have banned the procedure cannot access the drug at pharmacies; 12 states have total abortion bans, according to Guttmacher Institute. The 2022 Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe has opened the door for abortion opponents to argue fresh legal challenges. Earlier this year, anti-abortion activists pushed a report by right-wing think tank Ethics and Public Policy Center claiming serious complications from mifepristone use were 22 times higher than previously reported. Critics blasted the report as 'bogus.'
Reuters
16 minutes ago
- Reuters
Hedge funds shift bets to double down on Big Tech amid AI boom
NEW YORK, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Wall Street's largest hedge funds, Bridgewater Associates, Tiger Global Management and Discovery Capital, increased their exposure to Big Tech in the second quarter amid a generational boom in the growth of artificial intelligence. During the June quarter, hedge funds cut their exposure to laggards in industries like aerospace and defense, and consumer and retail, as part of a broader move back to momentum investing. It marks a big shift from earlier this year when bets on Big Tech had soured for top money managers due to tariff-fueled volatility in financial markets, with investor concerns around rising inflation and fears of a bubble in AI triggering a sell-off in "Magnificent Seven" stocks. Since then, tech stocks have staged a big comeback. The S&P 500 (.SPX), opens new tab is up 10% so far this year, buoyed largely by the largest tech companies, which account for nearly a third of the combined market cap of companies on the index. Outside technology, some hedge funds, such as Lone Pine and Discovery, also bet on UnitedHealth Group (UNH.N), opens new tab. Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N), opens new tab and Michael Burry's Scion Asset Management also unveiled bets on the insurer, while Soros Fund Management boosted an existing position. Shares in UnitedHealth are down 46% this year, as the company faces rising costs, a U.S. Department of Justice probe, a cyberattack and the shooting of former top executive Brian Thompson last December. The fund's positions were revealed in quarterly securities filings known as 13Fs. While backward-looking, these filings typically reveal what funds owned on the last day of the quarter and are one of the few ways hedge funds and other institutional investors have to declare their positions. Below are the details of the changes in the holdings of the top hedge funds: Bridgewater Associates added more shares in Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab, Alphabet (GOOGL.O), opens new tab and Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab in the second quarter. The macro hedge fund founded by Ray Dalio more than doubled its bets in Nvidia. It ended June with 7.23 million shares in the chipmaker, or 154.5% more than it had at the end of March. Nvidia was Bridgewater's biggest bet in a single stock, totaling $1.14 billion. Its holdings in Alphabet and Microsoft went up by 84.1% and 111.9%, respectively, amounting to $987 million and $853 million. Other AI-related stocks added were Broadcom (AVGO.O), opens new tab (+102.7%), to 317.8 million shares, or $317 million, and Palo Alto Networks (PANW.O), opens new tab (+117%), to 313.8 million, or $314 million. Discovery Capital, whose founder Rob Citrone has recently been bullish on Mexico's America Movil ( opens new tab due to its exposure to Latin America, doubled its stake in the wireless provider during the second quarter. For the quarter ended June 30, the fund amassed another 2.65 million shares, valuing its current holding in America Movil at about $95 million. Citrone's hedge fund, which generated a 52% windfall on its investments last year, has increased its exposure to Latin America as part of a strategy to diversify from U.S. holdings. During the quarter, Discovery increased its holdings in Big Tech, as it more than doubled its stake in Meta Platforms (META.O), opens new tab, the parent company of Facebook, while also betting on booming demand for AI as it took a new position in Nvidia-backed cloud provider CoreWeave (CRWV.O), opens new tab. The hedge fund also increased its position in UnitedHealth by 13%. Tiger Global Management bought more stocks in some Magnificent Seven companies in the second quarter, including (AMZN.O), opens new tab, Alphabet, Nvidia, Microsoft and Meta, its 13Fs showed. Chase Coleman's hedge fund added roughly 4 million shares of Amazon and ended June with roughly 10 million shares, worth $2.34 billion. The fund also increased its bets in smaller AI-players. It added over 800,000 shares in chip-making equipment supplier Lam Research Corp (LRCX.O), opens new tab, ending June with 5.26 million shares, valued at $512 million. Many changes in Philippe Laffont's Coatue Management portfolio were also around AI-related stocks. It unveiled new positions in both Arm Holdings and Oracle (ORCL.N), opens new tab, adding stakes worth roughly $750 million and $843 million, respectively. Both companies have boosted AI-related business initiatives. Coatue also increased its holdings in Nvidia-backed CoreWeave, adding 3.39 million shares in the second quarter, with its stake in the company worth $2.9 billion. Lone Pine Capital took a new position in UnitedHealth Group, buying up 1.69 million shares worth about $528 million during the June quarter.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Activist Starboard buys more Salesforce stock after first demanding change in 2022
NEW YORK, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Activist Starboard Value, one of the first investors to publicly push Salesforce (CRM.N), opens new tab to make changes three years ago, increased its stake in the U.S. software company by almost 50% in the second quarter, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday. The hedge fund reported owning 1.3 million shares in Salesforce on June 30, compared with 849,679 shares at the end of the first quarter when it boosted its stake by almost 52%. The move comes as the company's stock price has lost nearly 30% since January and is off nearly 9% over the last 12 months. Salesforce, which has a market value of $223 billion, came under intense pressure from a handful of activist investors in late 2022 and early 2023. But many who publicly pushed for changes cut their stakes or exited completely by the middle of 2023 after the company reported better results, added a new director to the board and made other changes. Now the pressure may be increasing again with Starboard, which is known to revisit earlier investments if the company is seen as backsliding on promises, loading up on the stock. While Salesforce's stock price gained nearly 100% in 2023, Starboard's chief executive, Jeffrey Smith, said late last year that the company still had room to become more efficient and profitable. A Starboard spokesperson could not be reached for comment on Thursday. The firm also increased its holding in drugmaker Pfizer (PFE.N), opens new tab by 10.5% to 8.5 million shares, less than a year after unveiling a $1 billion stake in the company and pushing it to improve performance. At Autodesk (ADSK.O), opens new tab, where the hedge fund settled its fight with the software design company in April, Starboard cut its stake by nearly 27%, the filing shows. While Thursday's filing is backward-looking, the so-called 13F filings, which detail what U.S. stocks a fund manager owned at the end of the previous quarter, are closely watched for possible investment trends.
