Java drinkers of the world, unite! Today is International Coffee Day, an annual event dedicated to one of the world’s oldest beverages. In honour of the beloved brew’s big day, Global News brings you ten fascinating facts about coffee.
While it’s not certain where the slang phrase “cuppa Joe” came from, one popular theory suggests the phrase originated in the 1900s with Joesphus Daniels, who was appointed Secretary of the U.S. Navy in 1913. Daniels abolished wine from the officers’ mess, thereby elevating coffee as the strongest beverage available aboard Navy ships.
There are two types of coffee, Arabica and Robusta. Arabica is grown at high altitudes in Latin America and Africa. It accounts for about two-thirds of global output. Human cultivation of this type of coffee reportedly began after goats in Ethiopia were seen acting uncommonly energetic after eating the leaves and fruit of the coffee tree.
Mocha (a.k.a. Mokha or al-Mukha) is a town in Yemen famed for its coffee roots. Mocha was the main centre for Arabia’s coffee exports from the 15th to 17th century. Legend has it the coffee bean originated in Mocha and spread through Egypt, Africa and Europe by merchant travelers passing through the port city.
After oil, coffee is the most widely used product in the world.
In moderation, caffeine from coffee can be beneficial to your health. Coffee berries and seeds are rich in antioxidants. Men who drink four cups of caffeinate coffee a day are half as likely to develop Parkinson’s disease, compared to those who skip their daily cup of Joe, according to a Harvard University study.
Coffee may help lower risk of depression in women. According to a new study by researchers at Harvard University, women who regularly indulge in a java jolt, four or more cups a day, reduce their risk of depression by 20 per cent.
Espresso coffee contains about one third the amount of caffeine as regular coffee. It takes about 40 coffee beans to make an espresso.
35 per cent of American coffee drinkers prefer their coffee black. Black coffee contains zero calories.
The word ‘cappuccino’ is derived from the Italian word ‘capuchin,’ which means small cap. It’s a reference to the beverage’s brown colour, which resembles the brown hoods of the Capuchin Friars, an order of friars in the Catholic Church dating back to the 16th century.
Starbuck’s Coffee is the world’s largest coffeehouse company, with more than 17,000 shops worldwide. The company’s name comes from Starbuck, a devoted coffee-drinker and Captain Ahab’s first mate in the 1851 Herman Melville classic novel, Moby Dick. The logo is based on a 16th century Norse woodcut of a mermaid, reflecting the maritime history of early coffee traders.
2011年9月29日 星期四
2011年9月28日 星期三
Illegal online pharmacy network busted
An illegal online pharmacy network used for shipping psychotropic drugs from India to customers in the U.S., Europe and Canada for the last six years has been busted by the Narcotics Control Bureau . Two persons were arrested on Wednesday in this connection.
Those arrested were identified as Alexander Vyukhin alias Alex , a Russian residing near Auroville for the last five years, and Shanker alias Sekar. They were remanded to custody and sent to prison.
Explaining their operations, NCB Zonal Director S. Davidson Devasirvatham said overseas customers requiring psychotropic drugs, which are usually banned in many foreign countries, would approach merchantaccount -holders online for delivery of the drugs.
“Theaccount -holders suspected to be operating from abroad have contacts in India to whom lists of required drugs, along with overseas addresses to which the delivery is to be made, are emailed. They pay huge money as the drugs are not available easily overseas.”
Investigation based on specific intelligence found that Vyukhin was such a contact for a merchantaccount -holder named ‘John', whose customers are in the U.S., parts of Europe and Canada. “Vyukhin received emails with drug orders on a regular basis from John; he would pass them on with delivery addresses to Shankar, who has a pharmaceutical background,” Mr. Devasirvatham added.
Shankar had travelled around the country procuring psychotropic drugs such as Alprax, Diazepam, Oxycodone and Hydrocodone and sent them overseas through Express Mail Service and Railway Mail Service . The duo were involved in the drug trade for nearly six years and are suspected to have made an overall profit of over Rs. 1.5 crore, NCB sources said.
The NCB team raided Shankar's house in Villupuram on Monday and seized three boxes of drugs and some parcels meant for delivery overseas.
Further probe is on to identify their overseas contacts and track down those who sold drugs in bulk to Shankar.
Those arrested were identified as Alexander Vyukhin alias Alex , a Russian residing near Auroville for the last five years, and Shanker alias Sekar. They were remanded to custody and sent to prison.
Explaining their operations, NCB Zonal Director S. Davidson Devasirvatham said overseas customers requiring psychotropic drugs, which are usually banned in many foreign countries, would approach merchant
“The
Investigation based on specific intelligence found that Vyukhin was such a contact for a merchant
Shankar had travelled around the country procuring psychotropic drugs such as Alprax, Diazepam, Oxycodone and Hydrocodone and sent them overseas through Express Mail Service and Railway Mail Service . The duo were involved in the drug trade for nearly six years and are suspected to have made an overall profit of over Rs. 1.5 crore, NCB sources said.
The NCB team raided Shankar's house in Villupuram on Monday and seized three boxes of drugs and some parcels meant for delivery overseas.
Further probe is on to identify their overseas contacts and track down those who sold drugs in bulk to Shankar.
2011年9月27日 星期二
Consumer anger mounts over debit card charges
Rachel Paul was a Regions Bank customer since moving to Nashville eight years ago. But when the Alabama-based bank recently announced monthly debit card fees, she decided to close her accounts there and switch to another bank.
“I mostly use my credit card or raw cash to buy things, so when I heard about the fees, I thought that was enough,” the 41-year-old Paul said.
Regions, SunTrust and First Tennessee banks are among the first in Middle Tennessee to unveil monthly checking account fees as regulations threaten to slice bank profits from debit cards.
Some customers are responding by switching primary banks to avoid fee increases on their accounts, which start this month or with October bank statements.
SunTrust Bank will charge a $5-a-month fee for debit card purchases, and Regions Bank will charge a $4-a-month fee for debit card purchases (ATM withdrawals and deposits are still free).
“I have always learned to budget. The new fees would have made this more difficult,” said Drew Hollowell, 30, who recently closed his Regions checking account, opting for one at the smaller Avenue Bank.
Paul and Hollowell likely will be joined by other once-loyal bank customers turning to banks with no debit-card fees to escape the additional cost of routine purchases, financial analysts say.
High-net-worth customers may be insulated from the new fees. Regions, for example, offers a checking account that carries no debit card fees but requires an average monthly balance of $5,000 or more.
Still, some believe small and community banks are poised to scoop up many disenchanted customers.
Fee changes are the result of last year’s Dodd-Frank financial overhaul legislation, which, in part, halved the amount merchants pay banks per debit card swipe.
Regions, with the largest market share in Nashville, has estimated the fee caps will cost them about $170 million annually.
First Tennessee Bank, a major competitor, has introduced a monthly debit card transaction fee for some of their checking account products, which charges customers a few cents per swipe up to $3.
“I was upset that I signed up for a free checking account and then found out it’s not going to be free anymore,” Barnes said. “I don’t want to be throwing away $5 a month; $60 a year is a lot to me right now.”
Though the new federal regulations will benefit merchants, McBride doesn’t expect the savings to trickle down to consumers.
“This is what retail lobbying groups have spent millions of dollars to change. This is going straight to the bottom line,” he said.
Banks with assets of less than $10 billion get a pass on the new merchant fee caps, which means smaller institutions and credit unions won’t be scrambling to recover lost revenue, or face pressure to alter fee structures on accounts.
However, it remains to be seen how merchants will handle debit cards from the smaller institutions, since it will cost retailers nearly double what it would to swipe a card from a bigger bank.
“I mostly use my credit card or raw cash to buy things, so when I heard about the fees, I thought that was enough,” the 41-year-old Paul said.
Regions, SunTrust and First Tennessee banks are among the first in Middle Tennessee to unveil monthly checking account fees as regulations threaten to slice bank profits from debit cards.
Some customers are responding by switching primary banks to avoid fee increases on their accounts, which start this month or with October bank statements.
SunTrust Bank will charge a $5-a-month fee for debit card purchases, and Regions Bank will charge a $4-a-month fee for debit card purchases (ATM withdrawals and deposits are still free).
“I have always learned to budget. The new fees would have made this more difficult,” said Drew Hollowell, 30, who recently closed his Regions checking account, opting for one at the smaller Avenue Bank.
Paul and Hollowell likely will be joined by other once-loyal bank customers turning to banks with no debit-card fees to escape the additional cost of routine purchases, financial analysts say.
High-net-worth customers may be insulated from the new fees. Regions, for example, offers a checking account that carries no debit card fees but requires an average monthly balance of $5,000 or more.
Still, some believe small and community banks are poised to scoop up many disenchanted customers.
Fee changes are the result of last year’s Dodd-Frank financial overhaul legislation, which, in part, halved the amount merchants pay banks per debit card swipe.
Regions, with the largest market share in Nashville, has estimated the fee caps will cost them about $170 million annually.
First Tennessee Bank, a major competitor, has introduced a monthly debit card transaction fee for some of their checking account products, which charges customers a few cents per swipe up to $3.
“I was upset that I signed up for a free checking account and then found out it’s not going to be free anymore,” Barnes said. “I don’t want to be throwing away $5 a month; $60 a year is a lot to me right now.”
Though the new federal regulations will benefit merchants, McBride doesn’t expect the savings to trickle down to consumers.
“This is what retail lobbying groups have spent millions of dollars to change. This is going straight to the bottom line,” he said.
Banks with assets of less than $10 billion get a pass on the new merchant fee caps, which means smaller institutions and credit unions won’t be scrambling to recover lost revenue, or face pressure to alter fee structures on accounts.
However, it remains to be seen how merchants will handle debit cards from the smaller institutions, since it will cost retailers nearly double what it would to swipe a card from a bigger bank.
2011年9月26日 星期一
Air Products Wins Another Wison Industrial Gas Supply Contract
Air Products (NYSE: APD) today announced it will build, own and operate an air separation unit (ASU) and integrated liquefier in the Nanjing Chemicals Industrial Park in Nanjing, China. Air Products has won a long-term contract to supply oxygen and nitrogen to Wison (Nanjing) Clean Energy Ltd., Inc.'s (Wison Energy) coal to syngas gasification facility in Nanjing. Air Products will also operate a liquefier and increase argon production to supply the growing regional merchant liquid industrial gas market. The new operations are to be commercial in 2013.
The new ASU will produce over 1,500 tons per day (TPD) of gaseous oxygen and over 1,900 TPD of gaseous nitrogen. The liquefier will more than triple Air Products' current production of liquid oxygen and liquid nitrogen, and argon production will be increased by over 40 percent for the merchant market in the region.
"This new ASU will be the third we have built and will operate to supply the Wison Energy facility with tonnage quantities of industrial gases. We are pleased to grow this relationship with Wison and believe our history of supply reliability and safety record, among other factors, were key to winning this business. The location of this facility and ability to increase liquid product capacity is essential to our growing sales in this region and fits well with our business strategy for this important market," said Steve Jones, Air Products' China president. Jones, a member of the company's corporate executive committee, is based in Shanghai as part of Air Products' corporate strategy to support significant growth opportunities and accelerate the company's development in emerging markets.
"Wison Energy is pleased to partner with Air Products again. As one of the leading suppliers for coal-based gases in China, we not only supply to customers reliable, high-quality hydrogen, CO and syngas, but also hope to prosper together and form a long-term strategic partnership along a successful supply chain. I believe this cooperation is an extension of our strong relationship. It will form a solid foundation for Wison Energy's future business development," said Liu Hongjun, President of Wison (Nanjing) Clean Energy Ltd., Inc.
Air Products currently operates two ASUs supplying Wison Energy with tonnage amounts of industrial gases to support their operations in the Nanjing Chemicals Industrial Park. The initial ASUs supporting the petrochemical facility were brought onstream in 2007 and 2009.
"The three ASUs at this site provide Air Products the opportunity for additional customers for both tonnage gaseous supply and to meet the needs of the growing merchant market. It is a tremendous location for a cluster of industrial gas manufacturing plants," said Jones. Nanjing Chemical Industrial Park is a state-level petrochemical park in China. Located about 30 kilometers north of Nanjing on the northern part of the Yangtze River, the Park is a major constituent of the Nanjing New & High Technology Industry Development Zone with superior support of a good transportation network and logistics.
Air Products has been operating in China since 1987 and was one of the first multinational industrial gas corporations to invest in the country. With over 40 operating entities, 50 production facilities and 2,200 employees, the company has already established a strong market position in China, serving a broad range of industries.
Wison Energy is a member of Wison Group and has been in operation since 2003. It uses coal as the feedstock and by applying clean coal production technology, supplies high-quality CO, methanol, H2, syngas, enriched H2 and sulfur to customers. It is one of the leading suppliers for coal based gases in China. Wison Group, headquartered in Shanghai, is a diverse conglomerate, specialized in high technology content businesses such as engineering services, offshore and marine, clean energy, bio-pharmaceutical and communication.
The new ASU will produce over 1,500 tons per day (TPD) of gaseous oxygen and over 1,900 TPD of gaseous nitrogen. The liquefier will more than triple Air Products' current production of liquid oxygen and liquid nitrogen, and argon production will be increased by over 40 percent for the merchant market in the region.
"This new ASU will be the third we have built and will operate to supply the Wison Energy facility with tonnage quantities of industrial gases. We are pleased to grow this relationship with Wison and believe our history of supply reliability and safety record, among other factors, were key to winning this business. The location of this facility and ability to increase liquid product capacity is essential to our growing sales in this region and fits well with our business strategy for this important market," said Steve Jones, Air Products' China president. Jones, a member of the company's corporate executive committee, is based in Shanghai as part of Air Products' corporate strategy to support significant growth opportunities and accelerate the company's development in emerging markets.
"Wison Energy is pleased to partner with Air Products again. As one of the leading suppliers for coal-based gases in China, we not only supply to customers reliable, high-quality hydrogen, CO and syngas, but also hope to prosper together and form a long-term strategic partnership along a successful supply chain. I believe this cooperation is an extension of our strong relationship. It will form a solid foundation for Wison Energy's future business development," said Liu Hongjun, President of Wison (Nanjing) Clean Energy Ltd., Inc.
Air Products currently operates two ASUs supplying Wison Energy with tonnage amounts of industrial gases to support their operations in the Nanjing Chemicals Industrial Park. The initial ASUs supporting the petrochemical facility were brought onstream in 2007 and 2009.
"The three ASUs at this site provide Air Products the opportunity for additional customers for both tonnage gaseous supply and to meet the needs of the growing merchant market. It is a tremendous location for a cluster of industrial gas manufacturing plants," said Jones. Nanjing Chemical Industrial Park is a state-level petrochemical park in China. Located about 30 kilometers north of Nanjing on the northern part of the Yangtze River, the Park is a major constituent of the Nanjing New & High Technology Industry Development Zone with superior support of a good transportation network and logistics.
Air Products has been operating in China since 1987 and was one of the first multinational industrial gas corporations to invest in the country. With over 40 operating entities, 50 production facilities and 2,200 employees, the company has already established a strong market position in China, serving a broad range of industries.
Wison Energy is a member of Wison Group and has been in operation since 2003. It uses coal as the feedstock and by applying clean coal production technology, supplies high-quality CO, methanol, H2, syngas, enriched H2 and sulfur to customers. It is one of the leading suppliers for coal based gases in China. Wison Group, headquartered in Shanghai, is a diverse conglomerate, specialized in high technology content businesses such as engineering services, offshore and marine, clean energy, bio-pharmaceutical and communication.
2011年9月25日 星期日
Brownville home to governors, businessmen and at least one major rascal
The Brownville agency office was managed initially by John Carson, who also was president of the Lushbaugh & Carson Bank there.
The next year, gold was discovered in Colorado, with the Brownville steamboat landing becoming a trailhead for outfitting gold seekers, which greatly increasing the express company's business.
The increase brought competition in the form of Merchant's Union Express Co., which was managed by Jacob K. Bear (sometimes Baer). When Merchant's Express later closed, Carson stepped down from his position at U.S. Express, which then was assumed by Bear.
The next we hear from Bear is on June 13, 1867, when "J.K. Bear and 165 other citizens of Nemaha County" signed a petition concerning the bill removing the capital from Omaha.
Early in 1869, the Brownville newspaper carried a story saying that Bear "was found at a late hour of the night sweltering in his own blood and groaning in pain. After he had so far recovered as to tell the story, he told that he had been sandbagged, shot and robbed of several hundred dollars."
The money was from the freight office, but why he had it in his possession late in the evening and not in the bank was unclear. The freight company did buy a new safe for the office and offered a reward, but the supposed robber was not captured or even a suspect sought.
Many folks in Brownville were skeptical of Bear's account and at least felt the entire story was "rather fishy." Still, Bear kept his position.
On Friday Oct. 28, 1869, it was first reported that the express office had been robbed of $12,000 (or as much as $15,000) the previous day. Interestingly, Bear had paid off a $200 loan and all of his local debts that same day.
On Saturday morning Bear was gone, but he left a complete letter of explanation with the Brownville Democrat. In the note he stated that he had taken "about $12,000" and further instructed that the letter be shown to W.H. Quick, his supervisor, when he arrived from Des Moines. He told the paper that he was certain the express company would issue a large reward for his capture, but at least he left town owing no one anything.
He also predicted, quite accurately it turned out, that his odds of escaping were 99 to 1 against him. His only regret was that he was sorry for his wife, who immediately reacted by filing for divorce.
Division Superintendent Quick immediately had a poster printed offering a $2,000 reward -- $1,000 for Bear's capture and return to Brownville and $1,000 for the return of the money or a proportional amount for any recovery. Bear was described as 25 years old, 5-foot-9½, weighing about 140 pounds, with smooth skin of a dark complexion, black moustache and a scar on his neck "caused by a pistol ball."
On Sept. 14, Bear was indeed caught and indicted by a grand jury. He said he had chosen to flee over suicide and that as he jumped into a skiff to cross the river, the cash box with the rest of the money fell into the river. He also explained the self-inflicted wound to his neck was made by pulling a loose bunch of skin and shooting himself through it.
Bear was found guilty and sentenced to one year in the state penitentiary, far too lenient by local opinion.Interestingly and unexplainably, the governor subsequently reduced the sentence to three months.
On release, his wife remarried Bear saying "she would rather be ‘squz by a bear than not squz at all.'" Brownville citizens later claimed to have seen Bear around town, and a number of men even dug up the ground around his home looking for a cache of buried loot.
On Feb. 26, 1874, the Troy, Kan., Kansas Chief reported that J.K. Bear, alias A.J. Curtis of Waverly, Iowa, had absconded "with a pile of express money." Bear was said to be known to have a passion for gambling.
At his subsequent capture, the Waverly Independent reported that while he was working for the Illinois Central Railroad, Bear announced that he was "leaving for a few days" and again had left a confession letter admitting he had taken $1,100, that "gambling did the work," and that he would return and replace the money.
At that point Bear again disappeared somewhere far enough that no further account was forthcoming.
The next year, gold was discovered in Colorado, with the Brownville steamboat landing becoming a trailhead for outfitting gold seekers, which greatly increasing the express company's business.
The increase brought competition in the form of Merchant's Union Express Co., which was managed by Jacob K. Bear (sometimes Baer). When Merchant's Express later closed, Carson stepped down from his position at U.S. Express, which then was assumed by Bear.
The next we hear from Bear is on June 13, 1867, when "J.K. Bear and 165 other citizens of Nemaha County" signed a petition concerning the bill removing the capital from Omaha.
Early in 1869, the Brownville newspaper carried a story saying that Bear "was found at a late hour of the night sweltering in his own blood and groaning in pain. After he had so far recovered as to tell the story, he told that he had been sandbagged, shot and robbed of several hundred dollars."
The money was from the freight office, but why he had it in his possession late in the evening and not in the bank was unclear. The freight company did buy a new safe for the office and offered a reward, but the supposed robber was not captured or even a suspect sought.
Many folks in Brownville were skeptical of Bear's account and at least felt the entire story was "rather fishy." Still, Bear kept his position.
On Friday Oct. 28, 1869, it was first reported that the express office had been robbed of $12,000 (or as much as $15,000) the previous day. Interestingly, Bear had paid off a $200 loan and all of his local debts that same day.
On Saturday morning Bear was gone, but he left a complete letter of explanation with the Brownville Democrat. In the note he stated that he had taken "about $12,000" and further instructed that the letter be shown to W.H. Quick, his supervisor, when he arrived from Des Moines. He told the paper that he was certain the express company would issue a large reward for his capture, but at least he left town owing no one anything.
He also predicted, quite accurately it turned out, that his odds of escaping were 99 to 1 against him. His only regret was that he was sorry for his wife, who immediately reacted by filing for divorce.
Division Superintendent Quick immediately had a poster printed offering a $2,000 reward -- $1,000 for Bear's capture and return to Brownville and $1,000 for the return of the money or a proportional amount for any recovery. Bear was described as 25 years old, 5-foot-9½, weighing about 140 pounds, with smooth skin of a dark complexion, black moustache and a scar on his neck "caused by a pistol ball."
On Sept. 14, Bear was indeed caught and indicted by a grand jury. He said he had chosen to flee over suicide and that as he jumped into a skiff to cross the river, the cash box with the rest of the money fell into the river. He also explained the self-inflicted wound to his neck was made by pulling a loose bunch of skin and shooting himself through it.
Bear was found guilty and sentenced to one year in the state penitentiary, far too lenient by local opinion.Interestingly and unexplainably, the governor subsequently reduced the sentence to three months.
On release, his wife remarried Bear saying "she would rather be ‘squz by a bear than not squz at all.'" Brownville citizens later claimed to have seen Bear around town, and a number of men even dug up the ground around his home looking for a cache of buried loot.
On Feb. 26, 1874, the Troy, Kan., Kansas Chief reported that J.K. Bear, alias A.J. Curtis of Waverly, Iowa, had absconded "with a pile of express money." Bear was said to be known to have a passion for gambling.
At his subsequent capture, the Waverly Independent reported that while he was working for the Illinois Central Railroad, Bear announced that he was "leaving for a few days" and again had left a confession letter admitting he had taken $1,100, that "gambling did the work," and that he would return and replace the money.
At that point Bear again disappeared somewhere far enough that no further account was forthcoming.
2011年9月22日 星期四
Increased government scrutiny of third-party payment processors requires enhanced compliance
Federal agencies are again stepping up their scrutiny of banks’ relationships with third-party payment processors. Typically, payment processors are deposit customers of banks and use deposit accounts to process large volumes of payments for merchants. This type of relationship raises difficult compliance issues for both banks and payment processors. Although payment processors provide a critical service for merchants, government agencies look closely at banks that have payment processors as customers.
Regulators have criticized certain payment processors because the processors make it difficult for consumers to identify the ultimatemerchant . The consumer’s bank account statement only has the payment processor’s name and not the merchant ’s name. Also, some payment processors have been used by abusive telemarketers and other entities engaged in consumer fraud. Banks opening accounts in the names of payment processors are exposed to a higher degree of risk of enforcement action by regulators, class-action lawsuits by consumers, and even criminal investigation.
For example, federal agencies have openedhigh -profile investigations and imposed tough penalties on banks that do business with wayward payment processors. Recently, in November 2010, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) ordered SunFirst Bank of Utah to revamp and improve its compliance systems and to cease doing business with certain abusive payment processors. The FDIC order also required SunFirst to increase its board oversight of compliance systems as they relate to payment processors and to name a compliance officer to enforce consumer protection laws.
The Federal Trade Commission obtained an injunction against these same payment processors in February of this year. Likewise, in April 2008, Wachovia paid $144 million to settle enforcement actions brought by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). Wachovia also faced actions by the United States Department of Justice and class-action plaintiffs. The actions resulted from Wachovia’s relationship with payment processors allegedly engaged in abusive telemarketing preying on senior citizens.
The FDIC and OCC have long scrutinized payment processors, repeatedly warning banks of the potential risks of doing business with them. The FDIC and OCC require banks to do more than just engage in routine credit and other similar underwriting when considering relationships with payment processors.
Rather, banks must: (a) look at payment processors’ businesses, and review their Web sites and promotional materials; (b) determine whether the payment processors sell their excess capacity (in such a situation, the payment processor itself actually processes payments for another payment processor), thus further concealing the ultimate users of such payment services; (c) examine the payment processors’ business policies, procedures and history of complaints; and (d) even visit the payment processors’ business locations. The FDIC has identified various lines of business that are particularly “high -risk ” when involving payment processors. These businesses include pharmaceutical sales, credit repair services, government grants, and home-based charities.
Banks that do not heed the OCC and FDIC’s recent warnings to improve compliance systems act at their ownrisk , which might ultimately invoke enforcement and other actions. Likewise, payment processors will need to examine their compliance procedures as they run the same risk . This time around, federal scrutiny will not be by regulators alone. Federal prosecutors have taken a very active interest in banks’ relationships with payment processors and will likely open criminal and civil investigations of the processors and the banks. Indeed, in February 2011, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia obtained an indictment of six defendants for processing gambling payments from offshore companies. See United States v. Hellinger, Crim. No. 11-83 (February 10, 2011). Also, in April 2011, a federal grand jury in New York returned an indictment charging 11 defendants, including the vice chairman of SunFirst Bank and the operator of a payment processor, related to their processing of payments for Internet poker companies.
Look for these actions to increase, with U.S. Attorneys’ Offices around the country and the Criminal and Civil Divisions at the Department of Justice in Washington dedicating more resources to investigations of payment processors. These investigations undoubtedly will look at more than just the payment processors. When prosecutors bring actions against payment processors, they almost always investigate the banks where the payment processors have deposit accounts. Investigations and actions against payment processors run therisk of exposing both the payment processors and banks to regulatory and even criminal investigations scrutinizing their compliance systems.
Regulators have criticized certain payment processors because the processors make it difficult for consumers to identify the ultimate
For example, federal agencies have opened
The Federal Trade Commission obtained an injunction against these same payment processors in February of this year. Likewise, in April 2008, Wachovia paid $144 million to settle enforcement actions brought by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). Wachovia also faced actions by the United States Department of Justice and class-action plaintiffs. The actions resulted from Wachovia’s relationship with payment processors allegedly engaged in abusive telemarketing preying on senior citizens.
The FDIC and OCC have long scrutinized payment processors, repeatedly warning banks of the potential risks of doing business with them. The FDIC and OCC require banks to do more than just engage in routine credit and other similar underwriting when considering relationships with payment processors.
Rather, banks must: (a) look at payment processors’ businesses, and review their Web sites and promotional materials; (b) determine whether the payment processors sell their excess capacity (in such a situation, the payment processor itself actually processes payments for another payment processor), thus further concealing the ultimate users of such payment services; (c) examine the payment processors’ business policies, procedures and history of complaints; and (d) even visit the payment processors’ business locations. The FDIC has identified various lines of business that are particularly “
Banks that do not heed the OCC and FDIC’s recent warnings to improve compliance systems act at their own
Look for these actions to increase, with U.S. Attorneys’ Offices around the country and the Criminal and Civil Divisions at the Department of Justice in Washington dedicating more resources to investigations of payment processors. These investigations undoubtedly will look at more than just the payment processors. When prosecutors bring actions against payment processors, they almost always investigate the banks where the payment processors have deposit accounts. Investigations and actions against payment processors run the
2011年9月21日 星期三
Retail Decisions launches fraud alert service
As the most significant modern advance in fraud detection and prevention in recent years, ReD Fraud Alert has been proven to drastically reduce merchant chargebacks by 43% as well as the risk of consumers falling victim to fraud.
This pioneering enhancement to ReD's leading e-commerce fraud prevention service, ReD Shield, increases the accuracy of identifying fraudulent transactions. Using information normally exclusive to the issuer, ReD creates a channel to enable its merchants to use a customer's full account profile to decide whether to accept or reject a transaction for items with a high ticket price.
Erika Gallo, Director, Global Risk Management for ReD, commented; "ReD Fraud Alert is a significant development enabling merchants and issuers to share information about suspicious fraudulent activity. The new service ensures that crucial transactional information can be disseminated quickly and effectively, protecting issuers and their customers, as well as merchants who have suffered liability for chargebacks, the loss of goods and association fines."
In recent trials, ReD has teamed with a large customer and global card Issuer to automate an effective way to reduce chargebacks by leveraging existing data and resources. The trial delivered a 43% reduction (by percentage of value comparing January 2011 to April 2011) in chargebacks. The step-change reduction in chargebacks from 2.14% to 0.16% over this period meant that throughput of transactions on high suspicious transactions increased dramatically for one leading card issuer.
The new service works by ReD sending a daily automated file containing details of high risk purchases to the issuer, if any suspicious activity appears on the customer's account the issuer calls the cardholder to verify the transaction. Information is then automatically sent back to ReD to authenticate the purchase. Risk models receive transactional confirmed fraud input within two days of authorization,n, faster than that of chargeback data which averages over thirty-eight days, increasing fraud detection rates faster through adopting models.
Unlike the Address Verification Service (AVS) check that a merchant is typically limited to when verifying a transaction with the issuer, the merchant can now utilize the issuer's more comprehensive verification process, which improves the accuracy of detecting fraud. ReD Shield Fraud Alert compliments the existing ReD Shield service which increases its clients' revenue while minimizing losses from fraud thanks to sophisticated technology and a multi-dimensional approach to fraud detection and protection.
This pioneering enhancement to ReD's leading e-commerce fraud prevention service, ReD Shield, increases the accuracy of identifying fraudulent transactions. Using information normally exclusive to the issuer, ReD creates a channel to enable its merchants to use a customer's full account profile to decide whether to accept or reject a transaction for items with a high ticket price.
Erika Gallo, Director, Global Risk Management for ReD, commented; "ReD Fraud Alert is a significant development enabling merchants and issuers to share information about suspicious fraudulent activity. The new service ensures that crucial transactional information can be disseminated quickly and effectively, protecting issuers and their customers, as well as merchants who have suffered liability for chargebacks, the loss of goods and association fines."
In recent trials, ReD has teamed with a large customer and global card Issuer to automate an effective way to reduce chargebacks by leveraging existing data and resources. The trial delivered a 43% reduction (by percentage of value comparing January 2011 to April 2011) in chargebacks. The step-change reduction in chargebacks from 2.14% to 0.16% over this period meant that throughput of transactions on high suspicious transactions increased dramatically for one leading card issuer.
The new service works by ReD sending a daily automated file containing details of high risk purchases to the issuer, if any suspicious activity appears on the customer's account the issuer calls the cardholder to verify the transaction. Information is then automatically sent back to ReD to authenticate the purchase. Risk models receive transactional confirmed fraud input within two days of authorization,n, faster than that of chargeback data which averages over thirty-eight days, increasing fraud detection rates faster through adopting models.
Unlike the Address Verification Service (AVS) check that a merchant is typically limited to when verifying a transaction with the issuer, the merchant can now utilize the issuer's more comprehensive verification process, which improves the accuracy of detecting fraud. ReD Shield Fraud Alert compliments the existing ReD Shield service which increases its clients' revenue while minimizing losses from fraud thanks to sophisticated technology and a multi-dimensional approach to fraud detection and protection.
2011年9月20日 星期二
Spring ushers in new season of rand weakness
The currency's fall in the first three weeks of September has been precipitous, taking it back to levels last seen in July 2010, and reminding economists, miners, manufacturers and ordinary South Africans just how volatile the rand can be.
While the reasons are mainly external - the eurozone crisis, the demise of Greece, the dodgy US economy and a sudden abhorrence of emerging markets - the good and bad effects of the sharply weaker rand will largely be internal.
Simply put, exporters are smiling, importers are not. An importer who does not have forward cover could go under on the currency's massive turnaround. Anyone who got complacent with the rand's period of respite between 6.50 and 7.00 to the USD could be in trouble today.
Worryingly, despite a slight pullback to 7.65 from Monday's 7.72, currency watchers such as Rand Merchant Bank believe 8.00 to the greenback could be possible within the next week or so as foreigners continue to dump bonds and equities and return to the strange safety of dollar denominated assets.
Despite the US' moribund economy and its gargantuan deficits, the world still moves back to the greenback in times of uncertainty.
Like a drug addict, it returns for a dollar fix before it can brush up the courage to go cold turkey again in international markets that currently appear to pose more risk than offer reward. Like it or not, the dollar is still the world's reserve currency and is likely to retain that position for quite some time to come.
But back to the pros and cons of a weaker rand. Before assessing this, it is worth noting that between May 1 and September 16, the rand averaged 6.88 against the dollar with a low of 6.56 and a high of 7.48. It ended August at 6.99. The currency's plunge in September could be a game changer for the economy.
Although gold is only a smaller player in the modern South African economy, it's worth looking at the exchange rate effect on gold miners' income stream.
On March 2, gold bullion was at $1,432 an ounce and the rand was at 6.94. A kilogram of gold fetched R319,512. Today, with gold at around $1,789 and the rand at 7.65, a kilogram of gold fetches around R440,000.
Not surprisingly, gold stocks have been big movers in recent days. Even little DRDGold, hardly an institutional favourite, has jumped by 20% since late August. The JSE's gold index jumped by 5% on September 19, underpinned by the rand's 3.1% slide against the dollar.
Mark Cutifani, AngloGold Ashanti's impressive CEO, said at the weekend that he sees the gold price hitting US$2,200 an ounce some time next year. That could sharply boost profitability for the group's South African operations and for those of Gold Fields and Harmony which have more local exposure.
Well known economist Iraj Abedien has for some time been urging the government and the Reserve Bank to intervene in an attempt to weaken the rand, stimulate the economy, and create jobs. As an adviser to the 26-member Manufacturing Circle, he said in May that the rand needed to be in the 8.00-8.50 range against the dollar. It was around 6.75 when he made his plea. It looks like he might just be getting his way without any intervention taking place.
His major premise was that SA's interest rates were too high in relation to the developed world where rates had been cut to near zero. With the manufacturing sector accounting for around 16% of GDP, he has consistently argued that a weaker rand would result in more competitiveness for local manufacturers.
At the same time Abedien was calling for some sort of intervention; Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said government would not intervene, despite the rand having strengthened more than 30% against the dollar since the start of 2009. He said that the stronger rand was helping to cushion the impact of higher fuel and food prices.
Significantly, the cushioning effects of the stronger rand have now materially reduced and inflationary pressures are mounting in the economy driven by food prices, fuel heading back to record high levels and above-inflation wage demands.
Oil is SA's biggest and most expensive import amounting to the equivalent of around 300,000 barrels a day. The rand's recent plunge means that oil imports are going to cost much more without event taking the oil price into account.
Econometrix's Tony Twine warned back in April that exporters, trade unions and various industry players might not be so keen for a weaker rand if they carefully studied the hugely pervasive and inflationary effects of higher crude oil prices on the local economy. He stressed that the multiplier effects of higher oil prices "are major and should never be underestimated".
Motorists feel the pain of higher fuel prices at the pump, but the entire economy feels the pinch of higher crude prices, not only through higher freight charges, but also through more expensive lubricants, petro-chemical feed stocks, bitumen, dyes, waxes and a range of other products.
While the reasons are mainly external - the eurozone crisis, the demise of Greece, the dodgy US economy and a sudden abhorrence of emerging markets - the good and bad effects of the sharply weaker rand will largely be internal.
Simply put, exporters are smiling, importers are not. An importer who does not have forward cover could go under on the currency's massive turnaround. Anyone who got complacent with the rand's period of respite between 6.50 and 7.00 to the USD could be in trouble today.
Worryingly, despite a slight pullback to 7.65 from Monday's 7.72, currency watchers such as Rand Merchant Bank believe 8.00 to the greenback could be possible within the next week or so as foreigners continue to dump bonds and equities and return to the strange safety of dollar denominated assets.
Despite the US' moribund economy and its gargantuan deficits, the world still moves back to the greenback in times of uncertainty.
Like a drug addict, it returns for a dollar fix before it can brush up the courage to go cold turkey again in international markets that currently appear to pose more risk than offer reward. Like it or not, the dollar is still the world's reserve currency and is likely to retain that position for quite some time to come.
But back to the pros and cons of a weaker rand. Before assessing this, it is worth noting that between May 1 and September 16, the rand averaged 6.88 against the dollar with a low of 6.56 and a high of 7.48. It ended August at 6.99. The currency's plunge in September could be a game changer for the economy.
Although gold is only a smaller player in the modern South African economy, it's worth looking at the exchange rate effect on gold miners' income stream.
On March 2, gold bullion was at $1,432 an ounce and the rand was at 6.94. A kilogram of gold fetched R319,512. Today, with gold at around $1,789 and the rand at 7.65, a kilogram of gold fetches around R440,000.
Not surprisingly, gold stocks have been big movers in recent days. Even little DRDGold, hardly an institutional favourite, has jumped by 20% since late August. The JSE's gold index jumped by 5% on September 19, underpinned by the rand's 3.1% slide against the dollar.
Mark Cutifani, AngloGold Ashanti's impressive CEO, said at the weekend that he sees the gold price hitting US$2,200 an ounce some time next year. That could sharply boost profitability for the group's South African operations and for those of Gold Fields and Harmony which have more local exposure.
Well known economist Iraj Abedien has for some time been urging the government and the Reserve Bank to intervene in an attempt to weaken the rand, stimulate the economy, and create jobs. As an adviser to the 26-member Manufacturing Circle, he said in May that the rand needed to be in the 8.00-8.50 range against the dollar. It was around 6.75 when he made his plea. It looks like he might just be getting his way without any intervention taking place.
His major premise was that SA's interest rates were too high in relation to the developed world where rates had been cut to near zero. With the manufacturing sector accounting for around 16% of GDP, he has consistently argued that a weaker rand would result in more competitiveness for local manufacturers.
At the same time Abedien was calling for some sort of intervention; Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said government would not intervene, despite the rand having strengthened more than 30% against the dollar since the start of 2009. He said that the stronger rand was helping to cushion the impact of higher fuel and food prices.
Significantly, the cushioning effects of the stronger rand have now materially reduced and inflationary pressures are mounting in the economy driven by food prices, fuel heading back to record high levels and above-inflation wage demands.
Oil is SA's biggest and most expensive import amounting to the equivalent of around 300,000 barrels a day. The rand's recent plunge means that oil imports are going to cost much more without event taking the oil price into account.
Econometrix's Tony Twine warned back in April that exporters, trade unions and various industry players might not be so keen for a weaker rand if they carefully studied the hugely pervasive and inflationary effects of higher crude oil prices on the local economy. He stressed that the multiplier effects of higher oil prices "are major and should never be underestimated".
Motorists feel the pain of higher fuel prices at the pump, but the entire economy feels the pinch of higher crude prices, not only through higher freight charges, but also through more expensive lubricants, petro-chemical feed stocks, bitumen, dyes, waxes and a range of other products.
2011年9月19日 星期一
Sidney Pinto Authors Debut Novel at 85
Sidney Pinto was born on September 2, 1926 in Mangalore, the seventh child of Albert and Helen Pinto. He studied in St. Aloysius School till 1938 in the Kannada medium of instruction, and could not speak English until he entered high school at the age of 13. He then started learning in English with Hindi as the second language. After passing the intermediate exam, he joined Loyola College, Madras and obtained an M. A. in Economics. He moved to Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1948 and did his L.L.B.
After a stint in the law profession, he shifted to industry in 1956. He joined an industrial company run by British owners, and in 1962, the Indian subsidiary of Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd. (ICI). In 1968, he was the only recruit to the proposed merchant banking unit of Grindlays Bank, and became head of the unit in 1973. He left Grindlays in 1976 and set up a consultancy of his own.
On a visit to a friend, he was introduced to a young businessman Uday Kotak (then 22 years), who had obviously studied his past career. Kotak insisted on his joining him to form a new business, which eventually became Kotak Mahindra Bank in 1985 when Kotak was 25 and Pinto 59. In 2003, Pinto was obliged to resign because of a new rule of the Reserve Bank that no director of a bank should be more than 70 years old. Pinto married Rosemary Albuquerque in 1957. She died in 2002.
Coming back to the novel, its central hero is Louis Puchhekanna (in Tulu, Puchhekanna means cat’s eyes), the youngest son of Pascal and Lethy Cardozu. He is a mulgenidar, farmer-tenant, who can be evicted only if he persistently defaulted on paying the annual rent to his landlord – in this case Walter Christo, a retired public official who lived in a bungalow, Forest Lodge, at Bijey, Mangalore, with his wife Veronica and two daughters, Jane and Rebecca. They had two in-house servants – old Sherpinami, the cook-woman, and Pauline, young, dark, house-help. For outdoor work, they had Kuttappan, a Kerala-origin bachelor, loyal to the family, and the local, Monappa, generally undependable. In this setting is transplanted Louis (hereafter Puchhe) who was viewed suspiciously rebellious by his ever-drinking father and his two elder siblings. He is offered to the landlord for work in Forest Lodge for a monthly salary of Rs. 6 – which was to be deposited in a post office account and beyond the reach of Pascal who would have spent it on his liquor.
The liquor story, partly extracted later, had already ended the life of Lethy, in her 30s, who was offered as dummy hostage in a liquor raid case and, there being no jail for women in Mangalore, was sent to Vellore where she was repeatedly gang-raped, ending with a delayed message that she had passed away. Young, ruddy and handsome Pucche is also viewed suspiciously at Forest Lodge because of the concern for protecting the virginity of the two daughters of the Christos and their dusky maid Pauline, for her virginity also the landlord couple feel responsible (see extract below). For this reason, Puchhe is barred from the run of the house and is made to work and sleep outdoors, on the varandah, and is allowed into the kitchen only for meals to be served by the household servant women.
Meanwhile, like water finds its own level, love blossoms furtively between Puchhe and Pauline, leading to her becoming pregnant – a great disgrace and scandal in the then conservative Mangalorean setting. The deed is done, what to do with the dagger? Puchhe the simpleton is prepared to marry Pauline and save her from disgrace – even if it involves eloping. But, Pauline carries a great secret which she is not willing to share with Puchhe nor does she want to cheat him. As it turns out later, her father was a leper confined to the leprosy asylum of Fr. Muller’s Hospital at Kankanady and she did not want Puchhe to suffer for her temporary relief.
Meanwhile, the landlord’s daughter, Rebecca, is infatuated with Puchhe and when he expressed desire to learn English to the landlady, Rebecca jumps into the ring and it leads to a touchy situation – literally. But, now Pauline’s illegitimate pregnancy gives a new twist to their story. Enters Lucy Sanctis, a neighbouring resident and head post master, who also doubles up as agony aunt and, beyond giving advice, also gets into finding solutions. Lucy, with the help of parish priests, gets Pauline married to a widower in a neighbouring parish, Felix Balthazer, a tailor by trade but also a helper in parish work.
Everything looks okay till Pauline is found ready to deliver before the conventional nine months after marriage. An upset Felix, heavily reinforced by liquor, uses his trade scissors to pierce the stomach of Pauline to get at the unborn child. The heavily bleeding Pauline is rushed to Fr Mullers Hospital where an emergency operation delivers a healthy, fair baby – with light blue eyes. But, Pauline dies of the deep wound and loss of blood. In due course the child is given to St Antony’s asylum at Jeppu.
At Forest Lodge, Pauline’s secret disappearance is known to the landlords; but not to Puchhe who agonises over her sudden absence. Now he is given Pauline’s duties and access to the house. One day, however, Walter finds his valuable Parker pen missing and Puchhe is the first suspect and is taken to the police station and is set for third degree treatment to extract a confession. At another level, Rebecca, sure of Puchhe’s innocence, gets a visiting young relative to admit to the theft and all would have been normal. But, Puchhe, fearing the impending torture by police, after borrowing money from his mentor, Kuttappan, secretly leaves the house, heading for Bombay, via bus up to Kadur and train thereafter.
As serendipity would have it, while waiting for the train to arrive, Puchhe is spied by Wendy D’Souza, setting out to go to England to be a nurse in the Royal Navy. She takes Puchhe under her wing, takes him to her untenanted flat in Mahim and then to stay at Majestic Hotel in downtown Bombay. She puts him touch with the vague contacts which Puchhe had come up with -- mainly a garage owner at Sassoon Docks. He also finds accommodation in a local Mangalorean club, studies in night school and soon opens an automobile parts shop, in partnership and ends up buying a flat in Colaba.
One of his better-placed friends and mentors, Stan, has taken a flat in suburban Vile Parle and Puchhe visits and spends week-ends with him. On one such train journey, he spies a familiar face exiting at Bandra Station. Stalking her, he traces her to a flat in Bandra West and gets low-down on how she has adopted Puchhe’s and Pauline’s son from the asylum and how she now works in Bombay with her school-going son, named Edward. To bring up the adopted son, she had given up the idea of marriage and written off her rights to the family property so that she can buy a flat and live in Bombay with Edward. During the story narration, Edward arrives from his boarding school to spend the weekend at home. His initial reaction to meeting Puchhe is detailed in the extract given later.
One thing leads to another and ends up in the low-key marriage of Puchhe and Rebecca, with the Christo couple and Jane and her husband attending. Puchhe moves out of his Colaba flat and moves into Rebecca’s Bandra flat. “And it was agreed by all concerned that each one would retain the name under which each had lived: Rebecca Christo. Edward Christo and Louis Puchhekanna.”
Aravind Adiga had used Mangalorean background in his novel, "Between The Assassinations" with little attempt to conceal the real names of places. Pinto is more specific and evokes nostalgia for Mangalore. His style is crisp and racy. He does not waste time on elaborate foreplay and repetitive sweet nothings – partly because all the amorous encounters are furtive. It is a page–turner, leading to the speculation” if only Pinto had got into his literary outpourings earlier. Of course, it is a matter of time, inclination and inspiration. We should be thankful for what we have. Amen.
After a stint in the law profession, he shifted to industry in 1956. He joined an industrial company run by British owners, and in 1962, the Indian subsidiary of Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd. (ICI). In 1968, he was the only recruit to the proposed merchant banking unit of Grindlays Bank, and became head of the unit in 1973. He left Grindlays in 1976 and set up a consultancy of his own.
On a visit to a friend, he was introduced to a young businessman Uday Kotak (then 22 years), who had obviously studied his past career. Kotak insisted on his joining him to form a new business, which eventually became Kotak Mahindra Bank in 1985 when Kotak was 25 and Pinto 59. In 2003, Pinto was obliged to resign because of a new rule of the Reserve Bank that no director of a bank should be more than 70 years old. Pinto married Rosemary Albuquerque in 1957. She died in 2002.
Coming back to the novel, its central hero is Louis Puchhekanna (in Tulu, Puchhekanna means cat’s eyes), the youngest son of Pascal and Lethy Cardozu. He is a mulgenidar, farmer-tenant, who can be evicted only if he persistently defaulted on paying the annual rent to his landlord – in this case Walter Christo, a retired public official who lived in a bungalow, Forest Lodge, at Bijey, Mangalore, with his wife Veronica and two daughters, Jane and Rebecca. They had two in-house servants – old Sherpinami, the cook-woman, and Pauline, young, dark, house-help. For outdoor work, they had Kuttappan, a Kerala-origin bachelor, loyal to the family, and the local, Monappa, generally undependable. In this setting is transplanted Louis (hereafter Puchhe) who was viewed suspiciously rebellious by his ever-drinking father and his two elder siblings. He is offered to the landlord for work in Forest Lodge for a monthly salary of Rs. 6 – which was to be deposited in a post office account and beyond the reach of Pascal who would have spent it on his liquor.
The liquor story, partly extracted later, had already ended the life of Lethy, in her 30s, who was offered as dummy hostage in a liquor raid case and, there being no jail for women in Mangalore, was sent to Vellore where she was repeatedly gang-raped, ending with a delayed message that she had passed away. Young, ruddy and handsome Pucche is also viewed suspiciously at Forest Lodge because of the concern for protecting the virginity of the two daughters of the Christos and their dusky maid Pauline, for her virginity also the landlord couple feel responsible (see extract below). For this reason, Puchhe is barred from the run of the house and is made to work and sleep outdoors, on the varandah, and is allowed into the kitchen only for meals to be served by the household servant women.
Meanwhile, like water finds its own level, love blossoms furtively between Puchhe and Pauline, leading to her becoming pregnant – a great disgrace and scandal in the then conservative Mangalorean setting. The deed is done, what to do with the dagger? Puchhe the simpleton is prepared to marry Pauline and save her from disgrace – even if it involves eloping. But, Pauline carries a great secret which she is not willing to share with Puchhe nor does she want to cheat him. As it turns out later, her father was a leper confined to the leprosy asylum of Fr. Muller’s Hospital at Kankanady and she did not want Puchhe to suffer for her temporary relief.
Meanwhile, the landlord’s daughter, Rebecca, is infatuated with Puchhe and when he expressed desire to learn English to the landlady, Rebecca jumps into the ring and it leads to a touchy situation – literally. But, now Pauline’s illegitimate pregnancy gives a new twist to their story. Enters Lucy Sanctis, a neighbouring resident and head post master, who also doubles up as agony aunt and, beyond giving advice, also gets into finding solutions. Lucy, with the help of parish priests, gets Pauline married to a widower in a neighbouring parish, Felix Balthazer, a tailor by trade but also a helper in parish work.
Everything looks okay till Pauline is found ready to deliver before the conventional nine months after marriage. An upset Felix, heavily reinforced by liquor, uses his trade scissors to pierce the stomach of Pauline to get at the unborn child. The heavily bleeding Pauline is rushed to Fr Mullers Hospital where an emergency operation delivers a healthy, fair baby – with light blue eyes. But, Pauline dies of the deep wound and loss of blood. In due course the child is given to St Antony’s asylum at Jeppu.
At Forest Lodge, Pauline’s secret disappearance is known to the landlords; but not to Puchhe who agonises over her sudden absence. Now he is given Pauline’s duties and access to the house. One day, however, Walter finds his valuable Parker pen missing and Puchhe is the first suspect and is taken to the police station and is set for third degree treatment to extract a confession. At another level, Rebecca, sure of Puchhe’s innocence, gets a visiting young relative to admit to the theft and all would have been normal. But, Puchhe, fearing the impending torture by police, after borrowing money from his mentor, Kuttappan, secretly leaves the house, heading for Bombay, via bus up to Kadur and train thereafter.
As serendipity would have it, while waiting for the train to arrive, Puchhe is spied by Wendy D’Souza, setting out to go to England to be a nurse in the Royal Navy. She takes Puchhe under her wing, takes him to her untenanted flat in Mahim and then to stay at Majestic Hotel in downtown Bombay. She puts him touch with the vague contacts which Puchhe had come up with -- mainly a garage owner at Sassoon Docks. He also finds accommodation in a local Mangalorean club, studies in night school and soon opens an automobile parts shop, in partnership and ends up buying a flat in Colaba.
One of his better-placed friends and mentors, Stan, has taken a flat in suburban Vile Parle and Puchhe visits and spends week-ends with him. On one such train journey, he spies a familiar face exiting at Bandra Station. Stalking her, he traces her to a flat in Bandra West and gets low-down on how she has adopted Puchhe’s and Pauline’s son from the asylum and how she now works in Bombay with her school-going son, named Edward. To bring up the adopted son, she had given up the idea of marriage and written off her rights to the family property so that she can buy a flat and live in Bombay with Edward. During the story narration, Edward arrives from his boarding school to spend the weekend at home. His initial reaction to meeting Puchhe is detailed in the extract given later.
One thing leads to another and ends up in the low-key marriage of Puchhe and Rebecca, with the Christo couple and Jane and her husband attending. Puchhe moves out of his Colaba flat and moves into Rebecca’s Bandra flat. “And it was agreed by all concerned that each one would retain the name under which each had lived: Rebecca Christo. Edward Christo and Louis Puchhekanna.”
Aravind Adiga had used Mangalorean background in his novel, "Between The Assassinations" with little attempt to conceal the real names of places. Pinto is more specific and evokes nostalgia for Mangalore. His style is crisp and racy. He does not waste time on elaborate foreplay and repetitive sweet nothings – partly because all the amorous encounters are furtive. It is a page–turner, leading to the speculation” if only Pinto had got into his literary outpourings earlier. Of course, it is a matter of time, inclination and inspiration. We should be thankful for what we have. Amen.
Mixed Approach On Total System
We reiterated our Neutral recommendation on Total System Services Inc. (NYSE:TSS), the global electronic payment processor and merchant acquirer, based on the current sustainability factor. The company reported second-quarter operating earnings of 28 cents per share, which came in a penny higher than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 27 cents and climbed from 25 cents per share in the year-ago quarter.
Results reflected increased same client transactions, lower taxes and slight increase in overall transaction volume. However, continued weakness in North America services along with a dip in merchant acquiring services revenue, higher-than-expected cost of services and selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses led to the decline in operating income.
Total System has come a long way from the negative top-line growth trend. Since the second quarter of 2010, the company’s fundamentals are screening decent growth in the top line. Although the rate is stuck at lower single digits, the company’s growth drivers lay ample optimism on the performance of the stock in the long run.
The market recovery has also enabled the improvement in new client growth, same-client transaction volumes and accounts-on-file. Going ahead, the revenue recovery is believed to follow slow and steady growth in North America as well with the company’s leading technology platform, improved pricing and healthy consumer spending once the economy stabilizes.
Total System’s risk free balance sheet along with a modest cash position and cash flow generation provides viable scope for share repurchases and acquisitions. The complete acquisitions of First National Merchant Solutions LLC (FNMS) and TermNet Merchant Services along with international alliances are expected to drive the company’s merchant acquiring space and contract portfolio. Meanwhile, the recent expansion of share repurchase program continues to inculcate confidence among investors.
On the flip side, Total System is vulnerable to increased competition from dominant players such as Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) and Alliance Data Systems Corp. (NYSE:ADS). Moreover, despite the economic recuperation since 2008, operating margin has witnessed a decline from 28.6% in 2008 to 27.2% in 2009 to 25.6% in 2010. It further declined to 17.3% in the first half of 2011 from 18.9% in the first half of 2010. The company even has a significantly high backlog of accounts.
Management’s outlook for top-line growth in 2011 also appears stressful. With weak internal fundamentals, the company is liable to lose edge over its competitors going ahead.
Currency and interest rates fluctuations pose additional risks. Total System is also exposed to sufficient risk from the regulatory measures enacted in the U.S. in July 2010. These are expected to take effect in the upcoming months of 2011, which could contract credit offerings from financial institutions. Any unfavorable impact of regulations could hamper the company’s inorganic growth strategy.
Finally, we believe that the overall market stability and healthy impact of the regulations in the card industry will help recover the number of client accounts and long term contracts in the long run.
Given the pros and cons, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the third quarter is pegged at 29 cents per share, increasing about 16% year-over-year. For 2011, earnings are expected to rise 11% over 2010 to $1.11 per share.
Additionally, the quantitative Zacks Rank for Total System is currently #3, indicating no clear directional pressure on the shares over the near term.
Results reflected increased same client transactions, lower taxes and slight increase in overall transaction volume. However, continued weakness in North America services along with a dip in merchant acquiring services revenue, higher-than-expected cost of services and selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses led to the decline in operating income.
Total System has come a long way from the negative top-line growth trend. Since the second quarter of 2010, the company’s fundamentals are screening decent growth in the top line. Although the rate is stuck at lower single digits, the company’s growth drivers lay ample optimism on the performance of the stock in the long run.
The market recovery has also enabled the improvement in new client growth, same-client transaction volumes and accounts-on-file. Going ahead, the revenue recovery is believed to follow slow and steady growth in North America as well with the company’s leading technology platform, improved pricing and healthy consumer spending once the economy stabilizes.
Total System’s risk free balance sheet along with a modest cash position and cash flow generation provides viable scope for share repurchases and acquisitions. The complete acquisitions of First National Merchant Solutions LLC (FNMS) and TermNet Merchant Services along with international alliances are expected to drive the company’s merchant acquiring space and contract portfolio. Meanwhile, the recent expansion of share repurchase program continues to inculcate confidence among investors.
On the flip side, Total System is vulnerable to increased competition from dominant players such as Global Payments Inc. (NYSE:GPN) and Alliance Data Systems Corp. (NYSE:ADS). Moreover, despite the economic recuperation since 2008, operating margin has witnessed a decline from 28.6% in 2008 to 27.2% in 2009 to 25.6% in 2010. It further declined to 17.3% in the first half of 2011 from 18.9% in the first half of 2010. The company even has a significantly high backlog of accounts.
Management’s outlook for top-line growth in 2011 also appears stressful. With weak internal fundamentals, the company is liable to lose edge over its competitors going ahead.
Currency and interest rates fluctuations pose additional risks. Total System is also exposed to sufficient risk from the regulatory measures enacted in the U.S. in July 2010. These are expected to take effect in the upcoming months of 2011, which could contract credit offerings from financial institutions. Any unfavorable impact of regulations could hamper the company’s inorganic growth strategy.
Finally, we believe that the overall market stability and healthy impact of the regulations in the card industry will help recover the number of client accounts and long term contracts in the long run.
Given the pros and cons, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the third quarter is pegged at 29 cents per share, increasing about 16% year-over-year. For 2011, earnings are expected to rise 11% over 2010 to $1.11 per share.
Additionally, the quantitative Zacks Rank for Total System is currently #3, indicating no clear directional pressure on the shares over the near term.
2011年9月18日 星期日
Official Says Germany Wants Armed Guards on Europe Ships
Germany plans to lobby other European Union countries to allow the deployment of private armed guards on their merchant ships in high-risk areas as a piracy crisis escalates, ministry officials said.
But analysts said the initiative was likely to face legal and practical difficulties.
Somali piracy is costing the world economy billions of dollars a year, and international navies are stretched to combat the menace in the Indian Ocean due to the vast distances involved. In desperation, more shipping companies are considering deploying private armed guards on their vessels.
The German government is looking into changing the country’s weapons laws to allow security personnel to bear firearms on ships in high-risk areas. It could also certify those private security companies that could be used on merchant vessels, a government official said.
”Our goal is to develop a coordinated approach to be presented at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) meeting in September, and EU governments are the main partners to bring on board,” said Jan Gerd Becker-Schwering with the German economy ministry. “To go this alone would not be beneficial.”
The European Union said allowing private armed guards on merchant vessels was a decision to be made on a national level, adding that ships should have best management practices (BMP) in place, including measures to prevent pirates from getting on board and to protect crew members.
“The implementation and execution of these BMPs, however, is the responsibility of the ship owners,” an EU spokesman said. “These private security contractors operate under the law of the flag state.”
Separately the IMO said such a move was up to national governments but warned of a potential escalation in violence.
“IMO does not endorse the use of privately contracted armed security personnel on board ships … and operators should take into account the possible escalation of violence,” the U.N.’s maritime agency said.
J. Peter Pham, with the Atlantic Council think tank, said the German plan could encounter legal setbacks, both domestically and abroad.
“Despite the apparent reasonableness of the German proposal, it will face several hurdles,” Pham said. “It needs to pass both houses of the German parliament, where there will be opposition from the left, which tends to look askance on mercenaries.”
Pham said it could prove difficult to convince foreign port authorities to allow armed groups into harbors.
“Even if Chancellor (Angela) Merkel’s government gets the necessary laws enacted, it will be an uphill battle to convince the authorities in ports to allow the security teams in, much less to get other countries, especially in Europe, to follow.”
International Chamber of Shipping Secretary General Peter Hinchliffe said the German plan was helpful in setting a precedent for approving armed guards in flags where they were not currently allowed.
“But it must not create a mechanism for governments to abrogate their responsibility under UNCLOS to protect trade routes,” he said, referring to an international convention that tasks nation states with tackling piracy on the high seas.
The German ship owners’ association VDR said private armed guards were a “second-best solution” to deploying police or military forces. The German government has ruled this out.
“Using sovereign forces would not only pose financial and capacity problems, but we could only use them on ships that sail under the German flag,” Becker-Schwering said.
Ships are often registered under other flags than that of the ship’s owner in order to avoid taxes and regulations of the owner’s country.
But analysts said the initiative was likely to face legal and practical difficulties.
Somali piracy is costing the world economy billions of dollars a year, and international navies are stretched to combat the menace in the Indian Ocean due to the vast distances involved. In desperation, more shipping companies are considering deploying private armed guards on their vessels.
The German government is looking into changing the country’s weapons laws to allow security personnel to bear firearms on ships in high-risk areas. It could also certify those private security companies that could be used on merchant vessels, a government official said.
”Our goal is to develop a coordinated approach to be presented at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) meeting in September, and EU governments are the main partners to bring on board,” said Jan Gerd Becker-Schwering with the German economy ministry. “To go this alone would not be beneficial.”
The European Union said allowing private armed guards on merchant vessels was a decision to be made on a national level, adding that ships should have best management practices (BMP) in place, including measures to prevent pirates from getting on board and to protect crew members.
“The implementation and execution of these BMPs, however, is the responsibility of the ship owners,” an EU spokesman said. “These private security contractors operate under the law of the flag state.”
Separately the IMO said such a move was up to national governments but warned of a potential escalation in violence.
“IMO does not endorse the use of privately contracted armed security personnel on board ships … and operators should take into account the possible escalation of violence,” the U.N.’s maritime agency said.
J. Peter Pham, with the Atlantic Council think tank, said the German plan could encounter legal setbacks, both domestically and abroad.
“Despite the apparent reasonableness of the German proposal, it will face several hurdles,” Pham said. “It needs to pass both houses of the German parliament, where there will be opposition from the left, which tends to look askance on mercenaries.”
Pham said it could prove difficult to convince foreign port authorities to allow armed groups into harbors.
“Even if Chancellor (Angela) Merkel’s government gets the necessary laws enacted, it will be an uphill battle to convince the authorities in ports to allow the security teams in, much less to get other countries, especially in Europe, to follow.”
International Chamber of Shipping Secretary General Peter Hinchliffe said the German plan was helpful in setting a precedent for approving armed guards in flags where they were not currently allowed.
“But it must not create a mechanism for governments to abrogate their responsibility under UNCLOS to protect trade routes,” he said, referring to an international convention that tasks nation states with tackling piracy on the high seas.
The German ship owners’ association VDR said private armed guards were a “second-best solution” to deploying police or military forces. The German government has ruled this out.
“Using sovereign forces would not only pose financial and capacity problems, but we could only use them on ships that sail under the German flag,” Becker-Schwering said.
Ships are often registered under other flags than that of the ship’s owner in order to avoid taxes and regulations of the owner’s country.
2011年9月15日 星期四
When investment banks hire risk-takers
The brains of investment bankers by nature are not wired for “client-based” thinking. This is the reason why the Glass-Steagall Act, which kept investment banks and commercial banks separate, was originally passed back in 1933: it just defies common sense to have professional gamblers in charge of stewarding commercial bank accounts.
Investment bankers do not see it as their jobs to tend to the dreary business of making sure Ma and Pa Main Street get their $8.03 in savings account interest every month. Nothing about traditional commercial banking – historically, the dullest of businesses, taking customer deposits and making conservative investments with them in search of a percentage point of profit here and there – turns them on.
In fact, investment bankers by nature have huge appetites for risk, and most of them take pride in being able to sleep at night even when their bets are going the wrong way.
Taibbi is receiving some blogospheric pushback, because the term “investment banker” means two very different things depending on the context. On the one hand, there’s investment banking as in M&A advice and old-fashioned merchant banking. A typical sentence would be “traders have replaced bankers in the executive suite at Goldman Sachs”. And then there’s Taibbi’s meaning: investment bankers as opposed to commercial bankers, or people who work at investment banks rather than at commercial banks. These are the people that the Vickers report is scared of.
The fact is that old-fashioned advisory bankers are pretty irrelevant here: the big money in finance has always been where the balance sheet is. And balance sheet is used on the trading floor and in commercial banking. So let’s put the fee-based bankers to one side: it’s absolutely true that investment bankers tend to love risk, even as commercial bankers have historically shunned it.
I’m reading The Devil’s Derivatives right now, Nick Dunbar’s fantastic book about credit derivatives traders. (I’ll have much more on the book when I’m done with it.) In the introduction, he makes this distinction really well, introducing the hotshot traders he dubs “the men who love to win”:
This rare, often admirable, but ultimately dangerous breed of financier isn’t wired like the rest of us. Normal people are constitutionally, genetically, down-to-their-bones risk averse: they hate to lose money. The pain of dropping $10 at the casino craps table far outweighs the pleasure of winning $10 on a throw of the dice. Give these people responsibility for decisions at small banks or insurance companies, and their risk-averse nature carries over quite naturally to their professional judgment. For most of its history, our financial system was built on the stolid, cautious decisions of bankers, the men who hate to lose. This cautious investment mind-set drove the creation of socially useful financial institutions over the last few hundred years. The anger of losing dominated their thinking. Such people are attached to the idea of certainty and stability. It took some convincing to persuade them to give that up in favor of an uncertain bet. People like that did not drive the kind of astronomical growth seen in the last two decades.
Now imagine somebody who, when confronted with uncertainty, sees not danger but opportunity. This sort of person cannot be chained to predictable, safe outcomes. This sort of person cannot be a traditional banker. For them, any uncertain bet is a chance to become unbelievably happy, and the misery of losing barely merits a moment’s consid- eration. Such people have a very high tolerance for risk. To be more precise, they crave it. Most of us accept that risk-seeking people have an economic role to play. We need entrepreneurs and inventors. But what we don’t need is for that mentality to infect the once boring and cautious job of lending and investing money.
When you’re hiring people for the UBS trading floor, you’re hiring men who love to win, congenital risk-takers. And then you surround them with risk-management protocols designed to keep them under some semblance of control. There’s a natural tension there. And if you take the hundreds of thousands of risk-takers working on trading floors in London and Hong Kong and New York and Paris, it’s a statistical inevitability that one or two of them will go rogue every year or so.
Risk-managment protocols are important, but they can never be foolproof, because they’re run by humans. So we really shouldn’t let investment bankers — by which I mean risk-hungry traders with access to billions of dollars of balance sheet — anywhere near the systemically-important balance sheets of our largest commercial banks. Losses like the $2 billion at UBS are manageable. But they’re small beer compared to the entirely legitimate losses made by the likes of Morgan Stanley’s Howie Hubler during the financial crisis. He managed to lose $9 billion, and get paid millions for doing so.
Investment bankers do not see it as their jobs to tend to the dreary business of making sure Ma and Pa Main Street get their $8.03 in savings account interest every month. Nothing about traditional commercial banking – historically, the dullest of businesses, taking customer deposits and making conservative investments with them in search of a percentage point of profit here and there – turns them on.
In fact, investment bankers by nature have huge appetites for risk, and most of them take pride in being able to sleep at night even when their bets are going the wrong way.
Taibbi is receiving some blogospheric pushback, because the term “investment banker” means two very different things depending on the context. On the one hand, there’s investment banking as in M&A advice and old-fashioned merchant banking. A typical sentence would be “traders have replaced bankers in the executive suite at Goldman Sachs”. And then there’s Taibbi’s meaning: investment bankers as opposed to commercial bankers, or people who work at investment banks rather than at commercial banks. These are the people that the Vickers report is scared of.
The fact is that old-fashioned advisory bankers are pretty irrelevant here: the big money in finance has always been where the balance sheet is. And balance sheet is used on the trading floor and in commercial banking. So let’s put the fee-based bankers to one side: it’s absolutely true that investment bankers tend to love risk, even as commercial bankers have historically shunned it.
I’m reading The Devil’s Derivatives right now, Nick Dunbar’s fantastic book about credit derivatives traders. (I’ll have much more on the book when I’m done with it.) In the introduction, he makes this distinction really well, introducing the hotshot traders he dubs “the men who love to win”:
This rare, often admirable, but ultimately dangerous breed of financier isn’t wired like the rest of us. Normal people are constitutionally, genetically, down-to-their-bones risk averse: they hate to lose money. The pain of dropping $10 at the casino craps table far outweighs the pleasure of winning $10 on a throw of the dice. Give these people responsibility for decisions at small banks or insurance companies, and their risk-averse nature carries over quite naturally to their professional judgment. For most of its history, our financial system was built on the stolid, cautious decisions of bankers, the men who hate to lose. This cautious investment mind-set drove the creation of socially useful financial institutions over the last few hundred years. The anger of losing dominated their thinking. Such people are attached to the idea of certainty and stability. It took some convincing to persuade them to give that up in favor of an uncertain bet. People like that did not drive the kind of astronomical growth seen in the last two decades.
Now imagine somebody who, when confronted with uncertainty, sees not danger but opportunity. This sort of person cannot be chained to predictable, safe outcomes. This sort of person cannot be a traditional banker. For them, any uncertain bet is a chance to become unbelievably happy, and the misery of losing barely merits a moment’s consid- eration. Such people have a very high tolerance for risk. To be more precise, they crave it. Most of us accept that risk-seeking people have an economic role to play. We need entrepreneurs and inventors. But what we don’t need is for that mentality to infect the once boring and cautious job of lending and investing money.
When you’re hiring people for the UBS trading floor, you’re hiring men who love to win, congenital risk-takers. And then you surround them with risk-management protocols designed to keep them under some semblance of control. There’s a natural tension there. And if you take the hundreds of thousands of risk-takers working on trading floors in London and Hong Kong and New York and Paris, it’s a statistical inevitability that one or two of them will go rogue every year or so.
Risk-managment protocols are important, but they can never be foolproof, because they’re run by humans. So we really shouldn’t let investment bankers — by which I mean risk-hungry traders with access to billions of dollars of balance sheet — anywhere near the systemically-important balance sheets of our largest commercial banks. Losses like the $2 billion at UBS are manageable. But they’re small beer compared to the entirely legitimate losses made by the likes of Morgan Stanley’s Howie Hubler during the financial crisis. He managed to lose $9 billion, and get paid millions for doing so.
2011年9月14日 星期三
WooEB ADit Deals Changes Daily Deals for Merchants by Providing Fixed Price
WooEB is preparing to launch ADit Deals and change the way daily deals operate. Adit Deals provides merchants the ability to post their deal online at a fixed cost and include information that other sites don’t offer. When merchants use ADit Deals they will be able to post all of the relevant content they have to market their deal and know exactly how to calculate their final cost.
ADit Deals charges merchants a fixed cost of $199 to run their deal. Deals can stay posted up to five days. All proceeds from sales excluding processing fees go directly to the merchant. Merchants can use their own PayPal account or apply for a merchant account through our partner. WooEB does not take any of your money, like some other sites do, so the total cost is known up front. Using their PayPal or the merchant services account, merchants can access their money directly through their account. Other coupon deal sites are known to held the proceeds from deals for weeks, sometimes months. This can effect a small business owner that sells their inventory at a discount, then has to wait for their money while having to restock their inventory. With ADit Deals you make the sale, receive the proceeds, WooEB does not make you wait for your money.
With ADit Deals providing a fixed price and the merchants keeping all their money from the sales, merchants can provide a deeper discount to their customers than on other coupon sites. This is a win win for both the merchants and customers.
ADit Deals provides the ability for merchants to engage their customers in a variety of different ways. Merchants have the ability to present a description of their deal to customers, include pictures of the product of service being offered, a video showing the product or service in action, and can even link the deal to their WooEB Hub so that customers can find out more about the business.
Each ADit Deal is accompanied by a press release that includes our social networking tool Buzz Signal. Buzz Signal promoted your deal on social networking and bookmarking sites. These sites can include Facebook, Twitter Stumbleupon and more. Buzz Signal provides 200 promotions to help spread the word of your deal which is aimed to increase customer awareness. We will also encourage merchants and their customers to share the deals by posting the link to their WooEB Hub, Facebbok and Twitter page. This is a great way to for customers to let their friends and family know what they are buying, so that they will view the deal and see if they want to buy it too.
Using ADit Deals to offer a discount to customers helps businesses plan their deal and receive their money with no middleman.
ADit Deals charges merchants a fixed cost of $199 to run their deal. Deals can stay posted up to five days. All proceeds from sales excluding processing fees go directly to the merchant. Merchants can use their own PayPal account or apply for a merchant account through our partner. WooEB does not take any of your money, like some other sites do, so the total cost is known up front. Using their PayPal or the merchant services account, merchants can access their money directly through their account. Other coupon deal sites are known to held the proceeds from deals for weeks, sometimes months. This can effect a small business owner that sells their inventory at a discount, then has to wait for their money while having to restock their inventory. With ADit Deals you make the sale, receive the proceeds, WooEB does not make you wait for your money.
With ADit Deals providing a fixed price and the merchants keeping all their money from the sales, merchants can provide a deeper discount to their customers than on other coupon sites. This is a win win for both the merchants and customers.
ADit Deals provides the ability for merchants to engage their customers in a variety of different ways. Merchants have the ability to present a description of their deal to customers, include pictures of the product of service being offered, a video showing the product or service in action, and can even link the deal to their WooEB Hub so that customers can find out more about the business.
Each ADit Deal is accompanied by a press release that includes our social networking tool Buzz Signal. Buzz Signal promoted your deal on social networking and bookmarking sites. These sites can include Facebook, Twitter Stumbleupon and more. Buzz Signal provides 200 promotions to help spread the word of your deal which is aimed to increase customer awareness. We will also encourage merchants and their customers to share the deals by posting the link to their WooEB Hub, Facebbok and Twitter page. This is a great way to for customers to let their friends and family know what they are buying, so that they will view the deal and see if they want to buy it too.
Using ADit Deals to offer a discount to customers helps businesses plan their deal and receive their money with no middleman.
2011年9月13日 星期二
Frequently Exchanging Stocks at OTCBB
Wall Street started flat as investors stay undecided regarding the direction of attempts to rescue Europe from its debt crisis. In this uncertain trading environment, some stocks are trading actively include MediSwipe Inc , Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. and Avstar Aviation Group . MWIP and ACTC are currently trading more than their average daily volume whereas AAVG is trading below it.
Let’s have a more thorough look on these penny stocks.
Amerchant merchant
The latestmerchant high risk merchant merchant merchant
A leader in the field of regenerative medicine, declared today that the company’s chairman and CEO, Gary Rabin, will give presentation at two upcoming conferences: the Rodman & Renshaw 13th Annual Healthcare Conference in New York and Terrapinn’s Stem Cells USA & Regenerative Medicine Congress 2011 in Boston.
Mr. Rabin will give updates on the company’s two continuing human clinical trials using hESC-derived RPE cells to treat macular degeneration and further programs. Its shares slipped 2.82% to $0.172 with the total traded volume of 6.59 million shares beating the average volume of 3.70 million.
Let’s have a more thorough look on these penny stocks.
A
The latest
A leader in the field of regenerative medicine, declared today that the company’s chairman and CEO, Gary Rabin, will give presentation at two upcoming conferences: the Rodman & Renshaw 13th Annual Healthcare Conference in New York and Terrapinn’s Stem Cells USA & Regenerative Medicine Congress 2011 in Boston.
Mr. Rabin will give updates on the company’s two continuing human clinical trials using hESC-derived RPE cells to treat macular degeneration and further programs. Its shares slipped 2.82% to $0.172 with the total traded volume of 6.59 million shares beating the average volume of 3.70 million.
2011年9月12日 星期一
Preparing for PCI D-Day
Allsup’s Convenience Stores, which has 320 c-stores in Texas and New Mexico is ready. It began rolling out Redbox from Reliant Security to all its stores in August, after beginning the planning process back in February.
“We have our own in-house-developed POS system, and it has been in service for a number of years, and therefore it uses some older technology, so complying with some of the PCI regulations was difficult with the legacy software,” said Gary Holmes, chief information officer for Allsup’s. “We found Reliant had a unique way of addressing PCI security—that being their Redbox network appliance. It isolates the cardholder data from exposure and monitors for unauthorized wireless in the area to make sure hackers aren’t trying to break into the data. So between Redbox and secure encryption, customers can be sure their data is well protected.”
PCI compliance is a priority to Allsup’s. “We’re committed to providing great customer service and part of that commitment is ensuring we use all due diligence to provide financial security to our customers and take that responsibility seriously, and that’s why we use a good secure network appliance to protect that data,” Holmes said.
While Redbox is set to take Allsup’s most of the way through PCI requirements, Holmes noted that the chain will also need to follow up with more employee-centric requirements, such as ensuring passwords and user IDs are continuously changed.
Stinker Stores is also gearing up for the Jan. 1 deadline. It rolled out Cybera’s Cybera ONE integrated security service at its 50 retail locations in Idaho earlier this year. Stinker Stores originally created an in-house PCI compliance solution, but eventually switched to Cybera’s fully-managed service due to the lower cost and the ability to take the management burden off of its IT staff.
Cybera provided the Boise, Idaho, chain with a customized design tailored to its application and compliance requirements. The chain’s solution includes: on-site security appliance; managed firewall service; managed intrusion detection services; rogue wireless detection and reporting services; hosted security information and event management with alerting; 12 month remote log storage; online solution management portal; and access to a 24/7 security operations center.
“If any c-store chain isn’t ready for PCI compliance now, they had better hurry. It’s a big project and there are many issues involved in PCI compliance, and if someone is just getting started now they’re going to have a very difficult time getting ready by the first of the year,” said Holmes. “Now that having been said, companies that used packaged software—if they use a POS system that is marketed by a major vendor of POS systems, the vendor has likely solved the software aspects of PCI compliance.”
Standards for PCI compliance are updated every three years. The move from version 1.2.1 to 2.0 was announced last fall, and stores have had an entire year to update their security in time for Jan. 1, 2012.
“You can, in fact, still use the old version 1.2.1 until Dec. 31, as long as the new system is in place by Jan. 1. But our suggestion is to use the new version now,” said Bob Russo, general manager for the PCI Security Standards Council.
PCI DSS is the basic standard for PCI compliance that includes 12 requirements covering six specific goals from physical security to logical security.
“Recognize that the PCI DSS changes from version 1.2.1 to 2.0 are not monumental changes, however they should not be overlooked,” said Susan Matt, CEO of ThoughtKey, a consulting firm specializing in strategic advisory and review services for the payment industry. “The changes are simply clarifications and additional guidance on the existing standards.”
One major clarification had to do with the primary account number (PAN) on a credit card. “If you decide you’re going to store that account number, it must be rendered unreadable—you can encrypt it or use tokenization, but it must first be rendered unreadable,” said Russo.
But questions persisted: “If I store that PAN and I store the customer’s name, do I have to encrypt everything including their name?” The answer is no; only the PAN must be encrypted. “If I store the primary account number and I also store the expiration date, do I have to encrypt both?” Again, no, just encrypt the primary account number.
“Those are the kinds of clarifications we needed to make within version 2.0. Some people think the council itself makes up these standards, but this is done from feedback from all of our constituents—we have almost 700 companies from retailers to associations, banks and vendors—who are all part of the council and who give us feedback on how we need to update these standards,” Russo said.
Logging is another aspect that is updated in the 2.0 version. “We want to make sure that everything that happens is in a log somewhere because, generally, if a breach occurs when the forensics people come in to see what happened, they always find what went wrong in the log,” Russo said. To be compliant by Jan. 1, stores need to ensure they have logging turned on and have one centralized log as opposed to many logs.
Reviewing those logs on a regular basis has helped merchants identify and fix potential breaches immediately. “That can be the difference between millions of credit cards compromised because no one has looked at the log in two months, and only five cards because someone was monitoring the log and took action,” Russo said.
Prioritizing risk is another aspect that has been clarified in the new version. Risks are different for every merchant. Two retailers can have the same vulnerability but have it rate differently in terms of risk.
“It used to be an assessor would come in and say, ‘You have 10 vulnerabilities and they all have to be fixed immediately for you to be compliant.’ But maybe vulnerability No. 9 is very obscure based on my risk profile. I understand it needs to be fixed, but I don’t need to stop everything and fix it—I can determine which vulnerability needs to be immediately fixed and which can wait a week,” Russo said.
That said, organizations can’t arbitrarily classify a vulnerability as high, medium or low risk. “There needs to be a valid and documented methodology supporting the reasons,” Matt said. “I encourage organizations to work with their QSA on the best approach and/or research the methodologies if you self-assess.”
Standards on scoping are also updated in the new version. Stores must scope the network to determine where they are vulnerable and where they are processing card data. “If you’re not processing credit card data in this part of your network, you really don’t need to do that much with that part of your network,” Russo said. “So before starting down the path of becoming compliant you really need to scope out your network to make sure you’re not doing more work than you need to be doing.”
Matt advises retailers to read through the PCI DSS & PA DSS version 2.0 Summary of Changes Memo published by the PCI Security Standards Council and to engage a QSA to discuss the changes and the potential impact on their chain.
“I also recommend to all of my clients a review of the PCI DSS standards and the subcomponents annually. You would be amazed at how much you can continuously learn each time you read the document,” Matt said.
Matt also recommends double checking that all requirements have been implemented and then having that validated in writing with any companies you are trusting to support or host the payment environment.
As she continues to support merchants through litigation following a data breach, Matt it is still surprised at how much of a gap still exists on PCI DSS across organizations of all sizes.
For larger organizations with a full-time IT staff, the transition from version 1.2.1 and 2.0 should be uneventful. “But for smaller organizations or those with fewer IT resources, the risk assessment requirements, scope reduction proof and virtual server reviews may prove more resource intensive so start ASAP,” Matt said. “I cannot emphasize enough the importance of taking PCI DSS seriously. Taking the smallest steps forward in achieving PCI DSS compliance can provide a significant amount of protection from a breach and the associated litigation liability.”
“The last thing you want is a breach,” agreed Russo. “Not because there are fines—that is the least of your worries. If it gets publicized that you’ve been breached, it can cause such damage to your reputation and the absolute worst thing that can happen is that your customers lose confidence in you.”
“We have our own in-house-developed POS system, and it has been in service for a number of years, and therefore it uses some older technology, so complying with some of the PCI regulations was difficult with the legacy software,” said Gary Holmes, chief information officer for Allsup’s. “We found Reliant had a unique way of addressing PCI security—that being their Redbox network appliance. It isolates the cardholder data from exposure and monitors for unauthorized wireless in the area to make sure hackers aren’t trying to break into the data. So between Redbox and secure encryption, customers can be sure their data is well protected.”
PCI compliance is a priority to Allsup’s. “We’re committed to providing great customer service and part of that commitment is ensuring we use all due diligence to provide financial security to our customers and take that responsibility seriously, and that’s why we use a good secure network appliance to protect that data,” Holmes said.
While Redbox is set to take Allsup’s most of the way through PCI requirements, Holmes noted that the chain will also need to follow up with more employee-centric requirements, such as ensuring passwords and user IDs are continuously changed.
Stinker Stores is also gearing up for the Jan. 1 deadline. It rolled out Cybera’s Cybera ONE integrated security service at its 50 retail locations in Idaho earlier this year. Stinker Stores originally created an in-house PCI compliance solution, but eventually switched to Cybera’s fully-managed service due to the lower cost and the ability to take the management burden off of its IT staff.
Cybera provided the Boise, Idaho, chain with a customized design tailored to its application and compliance requirements. The chain’s solution includes: on-site security appliance; managed firewall service; managed intrusion detection services; rogue wireless detection and reporting services; hosted security information and event management with alerting; 12 month remote log storage; online solution management portal; and access to a 24/7 security operations center.
“If any c-store chain isn’t ready for PCI compliance now, they had better hurry. It’s a big project and there are many issues involved in PCI compliance, and if someone is just getting started now they’re going to have a very difficult time getting ready by the first of the year,” said Holmes. “Now that having been said, companies that used packaged software—if they use a POS system that is marketed by a major vendor of POS systems, the vendor has likely solved the software aspects of PCI compliance.”
Standards for PCI compliance are updated every three years. The move from version 1.2.1 to 2.0 was announced last fall, and stores have had an entire year to update their security in time for Jan. 1, 2012.
“You can, in fact, still use the old version 1.2.1 until Dec. 31, as long as the new system is in place by Jan. 1. But our suggestion is to use the new version now,” said Bob Russo, general manager for the PCI Security Standards Council.
PCI DSS is the basic standard for PCI compliance that includes 12 requirements covering six specific goals from physical security to logical security.
“Recognize that the PCI DSS changes from version 1.2.1 to 2.0 are not monumental changes, however they should not be overlooked,” said Susan Matt, CEO of ThoughtKey, a consulting firm specializing in strategic advisory and review services for the payment industry. “The changes are simply clarifications and additional guidance on the existing standards.”
One major clarification had to do with the primary account number (PAN) on a credit card. “If you decide you’re going to store that account number, it must be rendered unreadable—you can encrypt it or use tokenization, but it must first be rendered unreadable,” said Russo.
But questions persisted: “If I store that PAN and I store the customer’s name, do I have to encrypt everything including their name?” The answer is no; only the PAN must be encrypted. “If I store the primary account number and I also store the expiration date, do I have to encrypt both?” Again, no, just encrypt the primary account number.
“Those are the kinds of clarifications we needed to make within version 2.0. Some people think the council itself makes up these standards, but this is done from feedback from all of our constituents—we have almost 700 companies from retailers to associations, banks and vendors—who are all part of the council and who give us feedback on how we need to update these standards,” Russo said.
Logging is another aspect that is updated in the 2.0 version. “We want to make sure that everything that happens is in a log somewhere because, generally, if a breach occurs when the forensics people come in to see what happened, they always find what went wrong in the log,” Russo said. To be compliant by Jan. 1, stores need to ensure they have logging turned on and have one centralized log as opposed to many logs.
Reviewing those logs on a regular basis has helped merchants identify and fix potential breaches immediately. “That can be the difference between millions of credit cards compromised because no one has looked at the log in two months, and only five cards because someone was monitoring the log and took action,” Russo said.
Prioritizing risk is another aspect that has been clarified in the new version. Risks are different for every merchant. Two retailers can have the same vulnerability but have it rate differently in terms of risk.
“It used to be an assessor would come in and say, ‘You have 10 vulnerabilities and they all have to be fixed immediately for you to be compliant.’ But maybe vulnerability No. 9 is very obscure based on my risk profile. I understand it needs to be fixed, but I don’t need to stop everything and fix it—I can determine which vulnerability needs to be immediately fixed and which can wait a week,” Russo said.
That said, organizations can’t arbitrarily classify a vulnerability as high, medium or low risk. “There needs to be a valid and documented methodology supporting the reasons,” Matt said. “I encourage organizations to work with their QSA on the best approach and/or research the methodologies if you self-assess.”
Standards on scoping are also updated in the new version. Stores must scope the network to determine where they are vulnerable and where they are processing card data. “If you’re not processing credit card data in this part of your network, you really don’t need to do that much with that part of your network,” Russo said. “So before starting down the path of becoming compliant you really need to scope out your network to make sure you’re not doing more work than you need to be doing.”
Matt advises retailers to read through the PCI DSS & PA DSS version 2.0 Summary of Changes Memo published by the PCI Security Standards Council and to engage a QSA to discuss the changes and the potential impact on their chain.
“I also recommend to all of my clients a review of the PCI DSS standards and the subcomponents annually. You would be amazed at how much you can continuously learn each time you read the document,” Matt said.
Matt also recommends double checking that all requirements have been implemented and then having that validated in writing with any companies you are trusting to support or host the payment environment.
As she continues to support merchants through litigation following a data breach, Matt it is still surprised at how much of a gap still exists on PCI DSS across organizations of all sizes.
For larger organizations with a full-time IT staff, the transition from version 1.2.1 and 2.0 should be uneventful. “But for smaller organizations or those with fewer IT resources, the risk assessment requirements, scope reduction proof and virtual server reviews may prove more resource intensive so start ASAP,” Matt said. “I cannot emphasize enough the importance of taking PCI DSS seriously. Taking the smallest steps forward in achieving PCI DSS compliance can provide a significant amount of protection from a breach and the associated litigation liability.”
“The last thing you want is a breach,” agreed Russo. “Not because there are fines—that is the least of your worries. If it gets publicized that you’ve been breached, it can cause such damage to your reputation and the absolute worst thing that can happen is that your customers lose confidence in you.”
2011年9月8日 星期四
The Real Threat of the Telco-Bank
The announcement that the Canadian carrier Rogers Telecom has applied for a banking license should hardly come as a shock to the retail banking fraternity. There is already a plethera of mobile carriers fully engaged in mobile payments right now, from Safaricom in Kenya, Orange (with Barclays) in the UK, the ISIS collaboration in the US, LG Telecom in South Korea, and the list goes on. Everywhere you look right now, there are carriers trying to muscle in on the mobile wallet and payments space.
The fact is that it makes perfect sense for mobile operators to start thinking about offering banking products and services as we dispense with plastic and start using our mobile phones as payment devices. Increasingly, banks are being detached from the end consumer by a technology layer. Let me prove it.
PayPal reinvented the customer experience layer around payments, and in doing so set the benchmark by which Peer-to-Peer payments are made. Sure there are banks at the back-end of PayPal, but today I can take out my phone or get online and send you money and all I need to know is your email address or your mobile phone number. This is compared with the average wire transfer which requiresaccount number, account name, bank name, bank address, SWIFT Code/ABA Routing Number or IBAN, etc, etc. Now we're all wondering why it's simpler, and in many cases cheaper, to use PayPal than a wire transfer through our traditional bank. Why go back to complexity and friction?
Today, if a bank wants to allow their customers access to Mobile Banking they have to go through a layer of technology called an App Store (or Marketplace). Sure, there is HTML5 and mini-browser mobile sites, but the fact is that if you want best-in-class interaction and engagement, you need to go App. So today, a bank must ask Google, Apple or RIM for permission to have clients access their bank via a smartphone.
If you look at broader offerings of financial service products, then mobile operators really don't want to play in that arena. What most of the mobile operators are looking to do is play in the payments space, taking control of the wallet on your phone or offering pre-paid debit card type services.
In 2008 about 17% of the US mobile subscriber base were on prepaid deals, but since the GFC (Global Financial Crisis) approximately 65% of net new subscribers are prepaid users. In emerging markets like India and China 90%+ of the subscriber base is prepaid, and the same counts for sub-Saharan Africa, and broadly across Eastern Europe and Asia. So what does this have to do with banking?
Prepaid subscribers for mobile phones generally speaking are more likely to be at the lower end of the scale for retail banking (less profitable, underbanked) or even in the unbanked segments. These are customers who don't have extensive multi-bank relationships, and who increasingly are moving to products like prepaid debit cards to facilitate their day-to-day banking needs.
So guess what happens when you combine a prepaid debit card with a prepaid mobile phone? It's a marriage made in heaven! What's the difference between making a telephone call, an ATM withdrawal or a debit card transaction at amerchant - they are all just transactions from a value store.
It's likely that as Telcos figure this 'secret' out that they will be aggressively going after that marginal layer of customers that are underbanked, and promising utility that a bank can't provide in the payments space. The combination of prepaid phone deal with a prepaid debit card will likely result in the loss of around 10% of the retail banking consumer market in developed economies in the next 5 years in my opinion, as they migrate to this type of modality.
The fact is that it makes perfect sense for mobile operators to start thinking about offering banking products and services as we dispense with plastic and start using our mobile phones as payment devices. Increasingly, banks are being detached from the end consumer by a technology layer. Let me prove it.
PayPal reinvented the customer experience layer around payments, and in doing so set the benchmark by which Peer-to-Peer payments are made. Sure there are banks at the back-end of PayPal, but today I can take out my phone or get online and send you money and all I need to know is your email address or your mobile phone number. This is compared with the average wire transfer which requires
Today, if a bank wants to allow their customers access to Mobile Banking they have to go through a layer of technology called an App Store (or Marketplace). Sure, there is HTML5 and mini-browser mobile sites, but the fact is that if you want best-in-class interaction and engagement, you need to go App. So today, a bank must ask Google, Apple or RIM for permission to have clients access their bank via a smartphone.
If you look at broader offerings of financial service products, then mobile operators really don't want to play in that arena. What most of the mobile operators are looking to do is play in the payments space, taking control of the wallet on your phone or offering pre-paid debit card type services.
In 2008 about 17% of the US mobile subscriber base were on prepaid deals, but since the GFC (Global Financial Crisis) approximately 65% of net new subscribers are prepaid users. In emerging markets like India and China 90%+ of the subscriber base is prepaid, and the same counts for sub-Saharan Africa, and broadly across Eastern Europe and Asia. So what does this have to do with banking?
Prepaid subscribers for mobile phones generally speaking are more likely to be at the lower end of the scale for retail banking (less profitable, underbanked) or even in the unbanked segments. These are customers who don't have extensive multi-bank relationships, and who increasingly are moving to products like prepaid debit cards to facilitate their day-to-day banking needs.
So guess what happens when you combine a prepaid debit card with a prepaid mobile phone? It's a marriage made in heaven! What's the difference between making a telephone call, an ATM withdrawal or a debit card transaction at a
It's likely that as Telcos figure this 'secret' out that they will be aggressively going after that marginal layer of customers that are underbanked, and promising utility that a bank can't provide in the payments space. The combination of prepaid phone deal with a prepaid debit card will likely result in the loss of around 10% of the retail banking consumer market in developed economies in the next 5 years in my opinion, as they migrate to this type of modality.
2011年9月7日 星期三
Credit Card Tips for International Travelers
Credit cards can be a convenient way to pay when traveling overseas, but using the wrong card can add extra fees and complications to your purchase.
Many credit cards charge as much as a 3 percent transaction fee for all international purchases.
In addition, some issuers charge a fee if a purchase is processed by a bank outside the United States, even if you never leave your home.
If you purchase something online from another country or purchase an airline ticket or hotel room with a foreign company, you could be charged a foreign transaction fee of up to 3 percent.
“Before you leave the country or order anything from a merchant that is not based in the United States, it is a good idea to call your issuer and ask about the foreign transaction fee,” says Bill Hardekopf, CEO of LowCards.com and author of The Credit Card Guidebook. “You can save yourself some money by using a credit card that doesn’t charge a fee for foreign transactions.”
According to a study by Pew Trusts in 2010, 91 percent of bank cards charged an international transaction fee. However, in an attempt to attract affluent cardholders with high credit scores and low risk, some issuers have dropped the international transaction fee from selected credit cards. American Express dropped the 2.7 percent fee from its Platinum and Centurion cards. Chase eliminated the 3 percent fee from several upscale travel cards including the Marriott Rewards Premier card, Chase Sapphire Preferred, British Airways Visa Signature, and United Mileage Plus Club Visa. Citi erased the fee from its ThankYou Premier and ThankYou Prestige cards.
Capital One has never charged a foreign transaction fee on any of its cards.
Current rates for international transaction fees:
Capital One–0%
PenFed Travel Rewards American Express–0% Discover–2% American Express–2.7% Bank of America–3% Chase–3% Citi–3%
Using a credit or debit card at foreign ATMs can also add additional fees. Before departing, also ask your bank what the charges are to use your card at “foreign” ATMs. In addition to the international transaction fee, the ATM may also charge its own fee for withdrawals. If you plan to use your debit card, contact your bank to see if they have partner banks in the areas you are traveling. These partner banks may waive the withdrawal fees. Bank of America is a member of the Global ATM Alliance Bank that waives the fee if your bank is a member.
ATM fees on international transactions vary widely. Chase assesses a $5 withdrawal fee for non-Chase withdrawals outside the United States plus a 3% conversion fee. Citi charges a 3% fee after conversion to American dollars.
Here are some other credit card tips for international travel:
* Avoid using your credit card at an ATM to get cash. The fee is typically 3%. You will also immediately be charged the much higher interest rate for cash advances. The cash advance rate can be as high as 25% for some issuers.
* Take a second card in case your primary card is not accepted.
American Express is not accepted everywhere, so have a MasterCard or Visa as a backup card. Discover does not have an extensive network in Europe and probably should not be your primary card.
* Notify your bank and credit card issuer about your trip. While you are asking your bank about foreign transaction fees, tell them that you will be using your card while traveling out of the country.
Otherwise, the foreign charges may raise a red flag with your issuer and a freeze could be placed on your account.
* In case you run into any problems, take the phone numbers for contacting your issuer from outside the United States.
* Before you order dinner or make any purchases, ask if the restaurant or merchant can process your credit card. Many countries use the chip and PIN system and no longer accept the American magnetic strip credit cards, and this can be a problem for American travelers. Credit card issuers have been slow to adopt chip and PIN, but this is changing with smartcards and smartphones.
Many credit cards charge as much as a 3 percent transaction fee for all international purchases.
In addition, some issuers charge a fee if a purchase is processed by a bank outside the United States, even if you never leave your home.
If you purchase something online from another country or purchase an airline ticket or hotel room with a foreign company, you could be charged a foreign transaction fee of up to 3 percent.
“Before you leave the country or order anything from a merchant that is not based in the United States, it is a good idea to call your issuer and ask about the foreign transaction fee,” says Bill Hardekopf, CEO of LowCards.com and author of The Credit Card Guidebook. “You can save yourself some money by using a credit card that doesn’t charge a fee for foreign transactions.”
According to a study by Pew Trusts in 2010, 91 percent of bank cards charged an international transaction fee. However, in an attempt to attract affluent cardholders with high credit scores and low risk, some issuers have dropped the international transaction fee from selected credit cards. American Express dropped the 2.7 percent fee from its Platinum and Centurion cards. Chase eliminated the 3 percent fee from several upscale travel cards including the Marriott Rewards Premier card, Chase Sapphire Preferred, British Airways Visa Signature, and United Mileage Plus Club Visa. Citi erased the fee from its ThankYou Premier and ThankYou Prestige cards.
Capital One has never charged a foreign transaction fee on any of its cards.
Current rates for international transaction fees:
Capital One–0%
PenFed Travel Rewards American Express–0% Discover–2% American Express–2.7% Bank of America–3% Chase–3% Citi–3%
Using a credit or debit card at foreign ATMs can also add additional fees. Before departing, also ask your bank what the charges are to use your card at “foreign” ATMs. In addition to the international transaction fee, the ATM may also charge its own fee for withdrawals. If you plan to use your debit card, contact your bank to see if they have partner banks in the areas you are traveling. These partner banks may waive the withdrawal fees. Bank of America is a member of the Global ATM Alliance Bank that waives the fee if your bank is a member.
ATM fees on international transactions vary widely. Chase assesses a $5 withdrawal fee for non-Chase withdrawals outside the United States plus a 3% conversion fee. Citi charges a 3% fee after conversion to American dollars.
Here are some other credit card tips for international travel:
* Avoid using your credit card at an ATM to get cash. The fee is typically 3%. You will also immediately be charged the much higher interest rate for cash advances. The cash advance rate can be as high as 25% for some issuers.
* Take a second card in case your primary card is not accepted.
American Express is not accepted everywhere, so have a MasterCard or Visa as a backup card. Discover does not have an extensive network in Europe and probably should not be your primary card.
* Notify your bank and credit card issuer about your trip. While you are asking your bank about foreign transaction fees, tell them that you will be using your card while traveling out of the country.
Otherwise, the foreign charges may raise a red flag with your issuer and a freeze could be placed on your account.
* In case you run into any problems, take the phone numbers for contacting your issuer from outside the United States.
* Before you order dinner or make any purchases, ask if the restaurant or merchant can process your credit card. Many countries use the chip and PIN system and no longer accept the American magnetic strip credit cards, and this can be a problem for American travelers. Credit card issuers have been slow to adopt chip and PIN, but this is changing with smartcards and smartphones.
2011年9月6日 星期二
G2 Web Services, LLC Secures Strategic Investment from Primus Capital
G2 Web Services, LLC, the leading provider of merchant compliance monitoring and e-commerce risk management services, today announced a strategic investment from Primus Capital. The investment will significantly expand G2’s global presence and accelerate the launch of revolutionary new services to manage merchant risk.
G2 Web Services provides acquiring banks, independent sales organizations (ISOs), payment service providers (PSPs) and other acquiring value chain members with the tools and services they need to identify, mitigate, and monitor risk in their merchant portfolios. Over the past seven years, G2 has built the world’s largest map of relationships between merchants, websites and e-commerce service providers. G2 persistently monitors millions of e-commerce websites for compliance with laws, acquirer policies and card network rules. The company leads the payments industry in the identification of third-party merchant agents, and provides merchant investigation and analysis services for hundreds of the industry’s largest financial institutions.
“Partnering with Primus Capital enables G2 Web Services to further support our clients globally with an expanded presence in Europe and Asia. The investment also allows us to accelerate the introduction of our new Global Boarding service, the first in a suite of new services under development, which will transform merchant risk analysis at boarding and throughout the merchant life cycle,” said Kevin Omiliak, General Manager of G2. “My partners and I are pleased to align ourselves with an investment partner that shares our vision for the future of merchant risk management.”
Primus Capital’s Managing Director, Jonathan Dick, said of the investment, “G2 Web Services combines a long history of strong financial performance and growth with a unique market position and an immense database map of merchant information. We are confident that G2 is changing the way the financial industry identifies and mitigates risk, and also believe there are a number of other companies that could benefit from being part of the G2 platform. We look forward to working with G2 to help the business continue on its rapid growth curve.”
About G2 Web Services
G2 Web Services, LLC is the recognized leader in merchant compliance monitoring and e-commerce risk management. G2 works globally with acquiring banks, independent sales organizations (ISOs), payment service providers (PSPs) and other acquiring value chain members to identify, mitigate and monitor risk posed by their merchants’ online presences.
By monitoring millions of merchant websites worldwide and collecting billions of data artifacts, G2 Web Services has built the industry’s largest e-commerce relationship map that provides a comprehensive and global view of e-commerce across the entire industry. From analyzing the risk involved with boarding a new merchant, to the regular review of website content for compliance violations, to third-party and account data compromise (ADC) risk mitigation, G2 provides a comprehensive set of tools and services to effectively manage acquiring organizations’ risk throughout the merchant lifecycle.
G2 Web Services provides acquiring banks, independent sales organizations (ISOs), payment service providers (PSPs) and other acquiring value chain members with the tools and services they need to identify, mitigate, and monitor risk in their merchant portfolios. Over the past seven years, G2 has built the world’s largest map of relationships between merchants, websites and e-commerce service providers. G2 persistently monitors millions of e-commerce websites for compliance with laws, acquirer policies and card network rules. The company leads the payments industry in the identification of third-party merchant agents, and provides merchant investigation and analysis services for hundreds of the industry’s largest financial institutions.
“Partnering with Primus Capital enables G2 Web Services to further support our clients globally with an expanded presence in Europe and Asia. The investment also allows us to accelerate the introduction of our new Global Boarding service, the first in a suite of new services under development, which will transform merchant risk analysis at boarding and throughout the merchant life cycle,” said Kevin Omiliak, General Manager of G2. “My partners and I are pleased to align ourselves with an investment partner that shares our vision for the future of merchant risk management.”
Primus Capital’s Managing Director, Jonathan Dick, said of the investment, “G2 Web Services combines a long history of strong financial performance and growth with a unique market position and an immense database map of merchant information. We are confident that G2 is changing the way the financial industry identifies and mitigates risk, and also believe there are a number of other companies that could benefit from being part of the G2 platform. We look forward to working with G2 to help the business continue on its rapid growth curve.”
About G2 Web Services
G2 Web Services, LLC is the recognized leader in merchant compliance monitoring and e-commerce risk management. G2 works globally with acquiring banks, independent sales organizations (ISOs), payment service providers (PSPs) and other acquiring value chain members to identify, mitigate and monitor risk posed by their merchants’ online presences.
By monitoring millions of merchant websites worldwide and collecting billions of data artifacts, G2 Web Services has built the industry’s largest e-commerce relationship map that provides a comprehensive and global view of e-commerce across the entire industry. From analyzing the risk involved with boarding a new merchant, to the regular review of website content for compliance violations, to third-party and account data compromise (ADC) risk mitigation, G2 provides a comprehensive set of tools and services to effectively manage acquiring organizations’ risk throughout the merchant lifecycle.
2011年9月5日 星期一
Piracy’s Impact on Trade
The changes in tactics of pirates have been a subject of constant review by International shipping community. The general understanding is that pirates are forever looking for ‘soft targets’ and newer techniques for extending their reach. Earlier pirate activities were mainly concentrated in the Gulf of Aden. However, due to increased military (Naval) presence in the area, incidents of piracy are now reported more eastward in the Arabian seas. Pirates have also started using captured merchant ships as ‘mother ships’ to launch attacks far away from the Somalia coast. This was stated by the Minister of State for Shipping, Shri Mukul Roy in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today.
The Minister said that on account of extension of ‘high risk area’ from earlier 65 degree East to 78 degree East (up to the outer limit of territorial waters of India), the cost of insurance for trading in the Arabian seas has generally gone up.
The Minister further informed that the Government of India has drawn attention to the problem of piracy and hostage taking off the Coast of Somalia and called for urgent and collaborative international counter-piracy measures in the meetings of the United Nations Security Council, International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS).
The Minister said that on account of extension of ‘high risk area’ from earlier 65 degree East to 78 degree East (up to the outer limit of territorial waters of India), the cost of insurance for trading in the Arabian seas has generally gone up.
The Minister further informed that the Government of India has drawn attention to the problem of piracy and hostage taking off the Coast of Somalia and called for urgent and collaborative international counter-piracy measures in the meetings of the United Nations Security Council, International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS).
2011年9月4日 星期日
High Risk Merchant Account
High Risk Merchant Account for merchants experiencing a problem getting approved for a merchant account. Factors relating to type of product, credit history, or past processing history can all play roles in being declined. Understanding theroot problem & addressing it accordingly can mean success orfailure when presenting a new application. Finding a high risk merchant account that suits your business is key to a
lasting relationship and trouble free processing.
Monthly volume and ticket sizes can play a role in declines or termination by processor, as the higher these numbers are the higher the risk. Often times, new business owners aren't trained properly and they exceed these numbers and swiftly
get shut down. In this scenario a high risk merchant account may be the only alternative.
Certain industry segments are notorious for chargeback's or experience a higher level of customer complaints. These are usually deemed undesirable by most processors and usually demand a High Risk Merchant Account to be considered. All credit card merchants need to focus on customer service & provide outstanding customer satisfaction to avoid problem with excessive chargeback's.
Before choosing a high risk merchant account provider, give us a call to discuss your situation & possible solutions. Today there are many providers offering "Cookie Cutter" approach swith only one solution, that's typically is not a good match in
most cases. We understand that one size does not fit all.
In the world of merchant services providers, some businesses are considered more high risk than others. This doesn’t mean these businesses can’t obtain merchant accounts or process credit cards, but they may be required to provide additional documentation in order to do so.
If you want to accept credit cards for your business but you’ve had trouble finding a credit card processor that will approve you, Merchant Express may be able to help. As long as your business is legal and not adult related, we can usually get you approved and set you up with either a high risk merchant account or an international merchant account.
lasting relationship and trouble free processing.
Monthly volume and ticket sizes can play a role in declines or termination by processor, as the higher these numbers are the higher the risk. Often times, new business owners aren't trained properly and they exceed these numbers and swiftly
get shut down. In this scenario a high risk merchant account may be the only alternative.
Certain industry segments are notorious for chargeback's or experience a higher level of customer complaints. These are usually deemed undesirable by most processors and usually demand a High Risk Merchant Account to be considered. All credit card merchants need to focus on customer service & provide outstanding customer satisfaction to avoid problem with excessive chargeback's.
Before choosing a high risk merchant account provider, give us a call to discuss your situation & possible solutions. Today there are many providers offering "Cookie Cutter" approach swith only one solution, that's typically is not a good match in
most cases. We understand that one size does not fit all.
In the world of merchant services providers, some businesses are considered more high risk than others. This doesn’t mean these businesses can’t obtain merchant accounts or process credit cards, but they may be required to provide additional documentation in order to do so.
If you want to accept credit cards for your business but you’ve had trouble finding a credit card processor that will approve you, Merchant Express may be able to help. As long as your business is legal and not adult related, we can usually get you approved and set you up with either a high risk merchant account or an international merchant account.
2011年9月1日 星期四
Election fever: Zambian Kwacha falls
Over the long term, so the theory runs, democracy brings stability to societies and economies as decision-making becomes more predictable and transparent. Africa’s recent experience suggests that, in the short term, the opposite can also be true.
Civil war followed Ivory Coast’s disputed election last November, and this year, one of the busiest electoral years since African states started to gain independence 50 years ago, pre-election market jitters and elevated government spending have sent currencies tumbling and bond yields soaring.
Zambia, Africa’s biggest copper producer and a relatively stable frontier market, has become the latest victim of the trend, with the kwacha falling to 5,025 to the dollar last month, its lowest in a year, ahead of Sept. 20 elections.
Increased government spending during the campaign has also pushed up yields on Zambian bonds, with 2-year debt costing 14.5 percent at auction last month, its highest in two years.
External factors such as commodity price fluctuations, inflation or the willingness of international investors to assume frontier risk are, of course, also playing a part.
Yet the price of copper, which accounts for 80 percent of Zambia’s exports, is only 9 percent off a February lifetime high. The kwacha also shed nearly 5 percent against the euro in August, suggesting its decline against the dollar is not merely a function of the global “risk trade”.
However, many analysts argue that Zambia should be seen differently from, say Uganda, whose shilling hit a string of lows in the run up to a February election before sliding further as inflation appeared to be surging out of control.
“Zambian inflation has been well-behaved and some of the concerns about east African currencies have been to do with policy confusion and miscommunication, which we haven’t seen in Zambia,” said Stuart Culverhouse, an economist at London-based brokerage Exotix.
PEACE DIVIDEND?
On a continent with a history of political violence and upheaval, Zambia’s record of predominantly peaceful politics since independence from Britain in 1964 should set it apart.
Unlike in Nigeria ahead of an election in April, there are no signs of wealthy Zambians cleaning out foreign exchange bureaux to build up a cushion of dollars and euros in case everything goes wrong on polling day.
“We don’t have a sure-fire winner but it’s predictable –unlike other sub-Saharan African countries where there’s considerable uncertainty prior to elections, which causes a run on your investments,” said Nema Ramkhelawan, a currency analyst at Rand Merchant Bank in Johannesburg.
Meanwhile, Kenya, east Africa’s biggest economy, has suffered Africa’s most severe pre-election financial jitters even though polling day is not until some time next year.
The Kenyan shilling is on the ropes, inflation is soaring into the upper teens and the reputation of the central bank is in tatters, largely because it decided to cut interest rates in January in the face of accelerating price rises.
That decision, which has since been reversed with a flurry of increasingly unconventional policy tweaks, was widely interpreted as a cave-in to political pressure for growth ahead of 2012 polls.
Instead, it has left the economy on a very unstable footing just as everyone from Nairobi housewives to New York investors are worrying about a possible re-run of the ethnic murder and mayhem that broke out after Kenyan elections in late 2007.
Civil war followed Ivory Coast’s disputed election last November, and this year, one of the busiest electoral years since African states started to gain independence 50 years ago, pre-election market jitters and elevated government spending have sent currencies tumbling and bond yields soaring.
Zambia, Africa’s biggest copper producer and a relatively stable frontier market, has become the latest victim of the trend, with the kwacha falling to 5,025 to the dollar last month, its lowest in a year, ahead of Sept. 20 elections.
Increased government spending during the campaign has also pushed up yields on Zambian bonds, with 2-year debt costing 14.5 percent at auction last month, its highest in two years.
External factors such as commodity price fluctuations, inflation or the willingness of international investors to assume frontier risk are, of course, also playing a part.
Yet the price of copper, which accounts for 80 percent of Zambia’s exports, is only 9 percent off a February lifetime high. The kwacha also shed nearly 5 percent against the euro in August, suggesting its decline against the dollar is not merely a function of the global “risk trade”.
However, many analysts argue that Zambia should be seen differently from, say Uganda, whose shilling hit a string of lows in the run up to a February election before sliding further as inflation appeared to be surging out of control.
“Zambian inflation has been well-behaved and some of the concerns about east African currencies have been to do with policy confusion and miscommunication, which we haven’t seen in Zambia,” said Stuart Culverhouse, an economist at London-based brokerage Exotix.
PEACE DIVIDEND?
On a continent with a history of political violence and upheaval, Zambia’s record of predominantly peaceful politics since independence from Britain in 1964 should set it apart.
Unlike in Nigeria ahead of an election in April, there are no signs of wealthy Zambians cleaning out foreign exchange bureaux to build up a cushion of dollars and euros in case everything goes wrong on polling day.
“We don’t have a sure-fire winner but it’s predictable –unlike other sub-Saharan African countries where there’s considerable uncertainty prior to elections, which causes a run on your investments,” said Nema Ramkhelawan, a currency analyst at Rand Merchant Bank in Johannesburg.
Meanwhile, Kenya, east Africa’s biggest economy, has suffered Africa’s most severe pre-election financial jitters even though polling day is not until some time next year.
The Kenyan shilling is on the ropes, inflation is soaring into the upper teens and the reputation of the central bank is in tatters, largely because it decided to cut interest rates in January in the face of accelerating price rises.
That decision, which has since been reversed with a flurry of increasingly unconventional policy tweaks, was widely interpreted as a cave-in to political pressure for growth ahead of 2012 polls.
Instead, it has left the economy on a very unstable footing just as everyone from Nairobi housewives to New York investors are worrying about a possible re-run of the ethnic murder and mayhem that broke out after Kenyan elections in late 2007.
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