Beenz offers a kind of loyalty programme resembling an air-miles scheme, and is now planning to provide debit cards allowing users to convert their beenz into cash.

ECONOMIST: A survey of online finance

It runs some of the industry's best-regarded customer-loyalty schemes, including British Airways' frequent-flyer programme.

ECONOMIST: One-and-a-half Nelson | The

Arab fears of Iran's regional ambitions, its influence over Shia minorities and its nuclear programme have lately been matched by Iranian worries about the loyalty of its own Arabs and the possibility of an attack launched from the American bases that speckle the opposite shore.

ECONOMIST: Old suspicions and new links