Commerce Innovated
MasterCard has teamed with Silicon Valley Bank to encourage startups doing business in the USA to apply for Commerce.Innovated. The program helps commerce-focused startups grow their businesses.
Preferred Rewards
After completing a four-month nationwide rollout of its Preferred Rewards program in October, Bank of America launched a major advertising campaign this week to round up more enrollees.
MasterCard and Silicon Valley Bank Commitment to Startups Grows
MasterCard and Silicon Valley Bank are inviting startups from across North America to apply for a position in the Commerce.Innovated. class. In the four-month Commerce.Innovated. program, participating startups receive access to industry expertise across the commerce space from selected MasterCard and Silicon Valley Bank executives and partners. Participants must be focused on an innovative commerce solution; have assembled a strong, small core team; activated a beta of their solution, that projects to generate revenue in the next 6 months; and have secured or raising seed funding, with plans to raise Series A.
Diebold Names New CEO, President
Diebold announced its board of directors has named Andy W. Mattes as the company’s new president and CEO. Also named a board director, Mattes will assume his leadership role with the company effective immediately. Mattes has a penitent for driving growth and improving profitability in large, global businesses. He has more than 25 years of experience in the information technology and telecommunications industries – primarily with Hewlett-Packard and Siemens AG. Mattes most recently was senior vice president, global strategic partnerships at Violin Memory, a manufacturer of flash memory computer storage systems. He will remain with Violin in an advisory role.
Discover Net Income Nearly Triples Y/Y
Discover reported net income of $649 million for its fiscal 3Q/11, way up from the year ago figure of $261 million while sales volume totaled $26.3 billion, up 9% from the prior year. Total loans for the quarter grew 8% from the prior year to $54.1 billion and were up 3% from the prior quarter,…
AUGUST CONSUMER BANKRUPTCY FILINGS DOWN 11% Y/Y, COFS 35% LOWER Y/Y
Credit card chargeoffs and bankruptcies will always be synonymous, and August 2011 was no exception. August consumer bankruptcies fell 11% from the year ago period with an overall consumer filing total having dropped to 113,432, from the August 2010 figure of 127,028 consumer filings. This correlates positively with credit card defaults ticking up eight bps…
REVOLVING CREDIT & COFS CONTINUE DOWNWARD TREND
In conjunction with U.S. credit card delinquencies plummeting to a near six-year low- with 60+ day delinquencies dropping for the 19th straight month by another 31 basis points (bps) to settle at 2.15%- total outstanding revolving credit dropped from $795.9 billion to total $792.5 billion in July for the first drop in 2 months. This…
COFs End 4-Month Drop-Off, Up .06% M/M
With both consumers and issuers skittish about credit use, U.S. credit card delinquencies fell to a near six-year low, with 60+ day delinquencies dropping for the 19th straight month by another 31 basis points (bps) to settle at 2.15%. Subsequently, the delinquency index is now 52% below peak levels of 4.50%, reached 18 months ago,…
Discover U.S. Spending Monitor Falls 1.1 Points in May
Following two consecutive monthly gains, with a surge in in April, a consumer confidence boost was led by 18- to 39-year-olds. But confidence declined in May as this group decided to start spending less in May. This resulted in a subsequent 1.1 point drop to 90.4 out of 100 on the Discover U.S. Spending Monitor, a poll of 8,200 consumers tracking consumer confidence and spending intentions, and a 3-point decline in those whom believe economic conditions are improving to 31%. Meanwhile, 52% of these younger consumers rated the economy as poor, an increase of 7 points from the previous month, while older consumers rating the economy as poor increased only three points. Also, those aged 18-39 who felt economic conditions were worsening increased 4 points to 44%; felt their personal finances were getting worse increased 5 points to 44%; while 25% felt their finances were getting better in May, a 1 point drop from the month prior. Overall, 10% of consumers would spend more on discretionary items, a 1-point decline from April; 56% of consumers planned to keep their overall spending flat in the month ahead; a 1-point decline in the number of consumers planning to increase spending in home remodeling or new appliances to 17%; a 1-point decline in the number of consumers planning to increase spending in vacations or furthering their education to 15%; and a a 1-point decline in the number of consumers planning to increase spending in sporting events, restaurants or hobbies to 10%. As 51% of consumers rated the economy as poor in May, 45% feel economic conditions are getting worse, a 2-point increase from the previous month, but 48% expect to have money left over after paying monthly bills, the highest since February.
Credit Card Charge-Offs Flat at 11.08%
Charge-offs on U.S. credit cards finished at 11.08% in February, one basis point higher than the January rate of 11.07%, while delinquencies fell to 5.91% to its lowest level since August. This, according to Moody’s Investors Service’s” Credit Card Indices Report,” also shows the February yield index of 22.23%, representing the highest monthly rate in the history of Moody’s index. With Base case expectation for the unemployment rate – a plateau in the second half of the year between 10% and 10.5% – and the expectation delinquencies will continue to improve, the charge-off rate is expected to peak at slightly lower than its long-held forecast of 12%. The trailing three-month average charge-off rate reached 10.82% in February, the highest level since September 2009. Meanwhile, excess spreads continue to receive significant support from issuer discounting initiatives and the strong yields and steady charge-off rates help catapult the excess spread index back above the 8% mark in February.
BMO, IN MOTION & PAYPASS
BMO Bank of Montreal, Research In Motion and MasterCard Canada have
partnered to bring mobile payments to BlackBerry smartphones through its
MasterCard “PayPass” ‘tap and go’ contactless payment technology.
Participants will use “PayPass” Mobile Tag-equipped BlackBerry
smartphones to make secure purchases at any of the 8,500 merchant
locations in Canada that accept MasterCard PayPass, integrating the
mobile payment with the device. A confirmation email is subsequently
sent of each transaction sent to the BlackBerry smartphone. The
confirmations include purchase details such as the amount, retailer and
date of transaction while the Mobile Tag contains the chip and antenna
found in a regular PayPass card, with the addition of special material
to reduce interference between the Mobile Tag and the phone to which it
is attached.
MoneyGram Coughs Up Penalty for Fraudulent Transfers
MoneyGram has agreed to pay $18 million in consumer redress to settle
FTC charges its money transfer system was used by fraudulent
telemarketers to scam millions from consumers between 2004 and 2008. The
FTC concluded MoneyGram agents knowingly helped fraudulent telemarketers
who tricked U.S. consumers into wiring more than $84 million within the
U.S. and to Canada. These consumers were tricked by being told they were
falsely hired for a secret shopper program, they had won a lottery or
were guaranteed loans. In some cases the FTC alleges MoneyGram agents in
Canada actually participated in these schemes. Moreover, 131 of its more
than 1,200 agents accounted for more than 95% of the fraud complaints it
received in 2008 regarding money transfers to Canada. At least 65 of
MoneyGramâs Canadian agents have been charged by Canadian or U.S. law
enforcers with, or are currently being investigated for, colluding in
fraud schemes that used the MoneyGram system.