A European Bitcoin exchange says that it has secured a license to operate as a payments service provider (PSP), bringing the crypto-currency into the formal economy.

In a post on the Bitcoin Forum, Bitcoin-Central says it has partnered with Credit Mutuel and payments outfit Aqoba to secure the PSP status from French authorities.

Funds will be held at Credit Mutuel under the user's name, with an account that will - in a "few months" - get its own Iban, meaning it can be used like any other bank account, with salaries and pensions paid in to it and converted into Bitcoins.

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After making a big deal of publicly supporting the Affordable Care Act, Walmart—the nation’s largest private sector employer—is joining the ranks of companies seeking to avoid their obligation to provide employees with health insurance as required by Obamacare.

It was not all that many years ago that Walmart announced, in response to harsh criticism over the low pay provided to Walmart ‘associates’, that the company would provide a healthcare benefit to its part-time, low earning employees. The uncharacteristically generous nod to worker needs was short lived as the company partially pulled back on the commitment in 2011, citing premium rate increases that Walmart deemed beyond their capacity to pay.

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