You might want to start getting used to leaving your wallet at home as
more large retailers jump on the mobile payment bandwagon. Three of
the US’s largest retailers, Wal-Mart, Target, and Best Buy have formed
a company, named Merchant Customer Exchange, or MCX. The company is
developing its own mobile application to process payments and has
hopes of gaining control over the wireless payment industry that many
believe will become not only preferred, but standard. It is currently
a 60 billion dollar industry that is projected to grow to 170 billion
dollars in the next four years. The MCX app will not only be more
convenient but cost effective as well, cutting back on credit card
swipe fees, paid out by the store chains, which average $40 billion
dollars a year. The app will be compatible with all smartphones and
can process many forms of payments including VISA, MaterCard, Debit,
and Credit accounts. MCX plans to partner with large banks so
payments can be processed directly by customers current financial
institution, other deals in the works include those with wireless
carriers, advertising companies, and other retailers, gas stations and
restaurants, including Sears, CVS, Shell Oil and 7-Eleven.
The libor accusations have crossed the pond and the attorney
general of New York and Connecticut issued subpoenas to seven banks
including Barclays, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Chase, HSBC,
RBS and UBS over the past two months for the manipulation of interest
rates. The manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, which
is used to set the interest rates on trillions of dollars in contracts
around the world, including mortgages and credit cards, has already
resulted in fines, including Barclays four hundred and fifty million
dollar settlement with various American and British regulators. So
what does libor have to do with New York and Connecticut? Well, LIBOR
is also used to determine the rates for the bonds issued by city and
county governments. This whole fiasco may be one more reason to dump
your bank stocks.
Things got heated last night between protesters and U.K. police at
the Ecuadorian embassy in London as the British government threatened
to storm the embassy to arrest Julian Assange so he could be
extradited to Sweden. Assange has been accused and charged with rape
and sexual assault in Sweden. Protesters and the U.K. police weren’t
the only ones in a tussle as Britain in no certain words said they
would move to remove the embassy’s diplomatic protection. The
Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino did not take this kindly
and said in a statement, “We’re not a British colony. The colonial
times are over” “The move announced in the official British statement,
if it happens, would be interpreted by Ecuador as an unfriendly,
hostile and intolerable act, as well as an attack on our sovereignty,
which would force us to respond in the strongest diplomatic way.”
You might want to start getting used to leaving your wallet at home as
more large retailers jump on the mobile payment bandwagon. Three of
the US’s largest retailers, Wal-Mart, Target, and Best Buy have formed
a company, named Merchant Customer Exchange, or MCX. The company is
developing its own mobile application to process payments and has
hopes of gaining control over the wireless payment industry that many
believe will become not only preferred, but standard. It is currently
a 60 billion dollar industry that is projected to grow to 170 billion
dollars in the next four years. The MCX app will not only be more
convenient but cost effective as well, cutting back on credit card
swipe fees, paid out by the store chains, which average $40 billion
dollars a year. The app will be compatible with all smartphones and
can process many forms of payments including VISA, MaterCard, Debit,
and Credit accounts. MCX plans to partner with large banks so
payments can be processed directly by customers current financial
institution, other deals in the works include those with wireless
carriers, advertising companies, and other retailers, gas stations and
restaurants, including Sears, CVS, Shell Oil and 7-Eleven.
The libor accusations have crossed the pond and the attorney
general of New York and Connecticut issued subpoenas to seven banks
including Barclays, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Chase, HSBC,
RBS and UBS over the past two months for the manipulation of interest
rates. The manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, which
is used to set the interest rates on trillions of dollars in contracts
around the world, including mortgages and credit cards, has already
resulted in fines, including Barclays four hundred and fifty million
dollar settlement with various American and British regulators. So
what does libor have to do with New York and Connecticut? Well, LIBOR
is also used to determine the rates for the bonds issued by city and
county governments. This whole fiasco may be one more reason to dump
your bank stocks.
Things got heated last night between protesters and U.K. police at
the Ecuadorian embassy in London as the British government threatened
to storm the embassy to arrest Julian Assange so he could be
extradited to Sweden. Assange has been accused and charged with rape
and sexual assault in Sweden. Protesters and the U.K. police weren’t
the only ones in a tussle as Britain in no certain words said they
would move to remove the embassy’s diplomatic protection. The
Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino did not take this kindly
and said in a statement, “We’re not a British colony. The colonial
times are over” “The move announced in the official British statement,
if it happens, would be interpreted by Ecuador as an unfriendly,
hostile and intolerable act, as well as an attack on our sovereignty,
which would force us to respond in the strongest diplomatic way.”