As US lawmakers prepare to implement sweeping credit card reforms, Bank of America Corp and JPMorgan Chase & Co are moving to overhaul overdraft fees and practices that have been criticised industrywide as excessive and harmful to consumers.
Bank of America Corp said on Tuesday it would cap the fees it charges customers for overdrawing their accounts, backpedaling on the hikes the company imposed just this year.
Starting on Oct 19, Bank of America will no longer charge overdraft fees when a customer's account is overdrawn by less than $10 in one day. A $35 fee will still be levied if the account isn't brought into balance within five days.
The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank will also limit to four the number of times an overdraft fee can be charged on an account per day. Just this year,the bank had raised that cap from five to 10.
It also raised the fee this year for the first overdraft in a 12-month period to $35 from $25- a hike that still stands.
"Enrollment in the bank's overdraft programme is currently automatic for new customers, and opting out is possible only in very limited circumstances,"said Anne Pace, a Bank of America spokeswoman.
But now customers will be able opt out, meaning that transactions will be denied at the register if customers don't have enough money in their accounts to cover a purchase.
Pace said the company didn't have an estimate on how many people might opt out of the overdraft programme,noting that many consider it a useful back-up."Customers will need to visit their local branches to opt out. They will also be able to call," Pace said,"but the appropriate phone number hasn't yet been determined."
When asked about the reversal from the fee hikes earlier this year, Pace said the company "is responding to the changing needs of customers in the difficult economic environment."
"JPMorgan Chase & Co will also be overhauling its overdraft fees," a spokeswoman said late Tuesday.
Starting in the first quarter of 2010,the bank will make overdraft protection opt-in for all customers, post transactions to accounts as they occur, and eliminate fees when accounts are overdrawn by $5 or less. It will also reduce the maximum number of fees per day to three from six.
"The changes will apply to all customer accounts," the spokeswoman said.
The banks' turnaround comes as credit card reforms passed earlier this year will soon limit banks' ability to raise fees and interest rates and require greater disclosure about costs. Banks also will have to give customers the choice to opt into over-the-limit programmes for credit cards, which are similar to overdraft programs and charge consumers for spending beyond their credit limit.
The credit card law doesn't address debit cards, however, and banks can still automatically enroll cardholders into overdraft programs. Three-quarters of large banks have automated overdraft programmes, according to a 2006 study by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Consumer advocates say automatic enrollment in overdraft programmes is misleading, because most people assume they can only spend the money they have when using debit cards. But the programmes have become an industry standard in the past several years,and a hefty source of revenue for banks.
Initial overdraft fees at banks range from $16 to $36, according to a survey by the Consumer Federation of America conducted in March.
Some banks also charge sustained fees if consumers fail to bring their accounts up to balance with a couple days; CFA says 10 of the 16 largest banks make such assessments.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
KBANK TAKES FACTORING FROM UNIT
Kasikornbank will take over the factoring portfolio of its subsidiary Kasikorn Factoring Co, leaving KFactoring with only a machinery and equipment leasing business.
"Usually K-Factoring's customers also use other financial services of Kasikornbank, so once the factoring portfolio is transferred to the bank, customers will receive more flexible pricing offers. Besides they can share their assets as collateral with other financial products," president Prasarn Trairatvorakul said yesterday.
KBank aims to become the king of the factoring business by expanding its market share to 30 per cent in 2011 from 21 per cent currently.
The factoring business worldwide has ballooned by an average of 27 per cent a year over the past five years.
The bank found that the local facฌtoring business had become increasฌingly interrelated with the bank's foreign business.
However, K-Factoring did not hold a foreignexchange licence, so the bank, which can conduct a foreignexchange business, would operate this service on its own in order to expand the business.
Besides, KBank's service channel also has been broadened with 60 foreign business centres nationwide that can offer factoring.
The factoring industry, now about Bt100 billion, has been growing at 12 per cent per year during the past five years, faster than the banking industry's growth rate of 9 per cent a year.
KBank's customer base is expected to gain about 20 per cent after the transfer.
Machinery and equipment leasing still has strong potential because industry is growing rapidly in Thailand. Last year machinery and equipment purchases reached Bt600 billion.
However there are not many machinery and equipment financing firms, so the bank would partner up with machinery and equipment suppliers in order to expand its leasing portfolio.
Pannee Lertchanyakul, managing director of K-Factoring, said three financing plans were available - hire purchase, financial lease and operating lease. Under hire purchases, customers could take ownership of their machine after the instalment period.
Under financial leases, they could choose to own the asset or return the asset to the company.
Under operating leases, they would not be allowed to own the asset.
KFactoring's machinery leasing portfolio runs Bt2.2 billion, equal to the factoring portfolio, but the size of the overall business is about Bt23 billion per year.
The company expects its leasing business to double next year and reach Bt7 billion-Bt8 billion in three years, handing it the market crown.
"Usually K-Factoring's customers also use other financial services of Kasikornbank, so once the factoring portfolio is transferred to the bank, customers will receive more flexible pricing offers. Besides they can share their assets as collateral with other financial products," president Prasarn Trairatvorakul said yesterday.
KBank aims to become the king of the factoring business by expanding its market share to 30 per cent in 2011 from 21 per cent currently.
The factoring business worldwide has ballooned by an average of 27 per cent a year over the past five years.
The bank found that the local facฌtoring business had become increasฌingly interrelated with the bank's foreign business.
However, K-Factoring did not hold a foreignexchange licence, so the bank, which can conduct a foreignexchange business, would operate this service on its own in order to expand the business.
Besides, KBank's service channel also has been broadened with 60 foreign business centres nationwide that can offer factoring.
The factoring industry, now about Bt100 billion, has been growing at 12 per cent per year during the past five years, faster than the banking industry's growth rate of 9 per cent a year.
KBank's customer base is expected to gain about 20 per cent after the transfer.
Machinery and equipment leasing still has strong potential because industry is growing rapidly in Thailand. Last year machinery and equipment purchases reached Bt600 billion.
However there are not many machinery and equipment financing firms, so the bank would partner up with machinery and equipment suppliers in order to expand its leasing portfolio.
Pannee Lertchanyakul, managing director of K-Factoring, said three financing plans were available - hire purchase, financial lease and operating lease. Under hire purchases, customers could take ownership of their machine after the instalment period.
Under financial leases, they could choose to own the asset or return the asset to the company.
Under operating leases, they would not be allowed to own the asset.
KFactoring's machinery leasing portfolio runs Bt2.2 billion, equal to the factoring portfolio, but the size of the overall business is about Bt23 billion per year.
The company expects its leasing business to double next year and reach Bt7 billion-Bt8 billion in three years, handing it the market crown.
Helping poor settle debts
The Finance Ministry's directive to the Government Savings Bank and the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives that they tackle the protracted underground or illegal debt problem of the poor, is indeed welcome news - even if this is yet another populist initiative of the Democrat Party.
Of course, whether this attempt by the government to help the poor bears fruit, remains to be seen.
Of late there have been increasing news reports of debtors being badly beaten up by thugs after they failed to pay on time.
Some desperate debtors even committed suicide because they could not stand the pressure of repayment deadlines imposed by loan sharks or their intimidation tactics.
The example of a debtor taking out 10,000 baht from a loan shark and ending up servicing only the 20%monthly interest for years, with the principal still standing,is a common one among those who have fallen victim to the vicious cycle of underground debt.
The debt problem has been identified as the most pressing issue faced by low-income earners in various occupations, and these debtors include government officials and state enterprise employees, according to a survey conducted in June by the Suan Dusit Poll.
About 47% of the farmers polled admitted that their most worrisome problem was their debts to the BAAC and to loan sharks.
For the two state-owned banks to start preparing lists of those in need of a refinancing arrangement would be too time-consuming. To expedite the process and make matters less complicated, the banks could simply update the previous lists of poor people prepared by the Interior Ministry during the Thaksin government.
It will be remembered that in 2004 the Thaksin regime attempted to solve the underground debt problem of people in the low-income bracket.
At the time, the Interior Ministry's debt settlement centre reported back to the Thaksin cabinet that it had brought together debtors and creditors for talks and managed to settle 97% of the debts owed by 1.6 million people, with total debt amounting to 108 billion baht.That was indeed a remarkable achievement.
Given the results of the recent Suan Dusit Poll,which show that the problem of debt remains the most pressing worry for people in various occupations and professions, two assumptions may be drawn:1) the claim by the Thaksin administration was exaggerated;and 2) new debts have been incurred.
One of the first challenges for the banks is how to convince lenders of these underground debts to come to the negotiating table and agree to a compromise settlement that would be fair to the debtors and acceptable to the banks.
Since many of these creditors are known to be mafia figures with ruthless thugs in their employ, or are unscrupulous police officers who double as loan sharks,it is doubtful whether bank officials will be able to carry out the job effectively.
In this matter, the involvement of officials from other agencies such as the Anti-Money Laundering Office, could be helpful and provide bank officials with some "teeth" to tackle the problem.
But the biggest challenge will be how to prevent these "rescued" debtors from again falling into the trap of underground debt. Which means the government may have to explore ways and means that would allow low-income earners a less complicated and less expensive access to new funding.
Of course, whether this attempt by the government to help the poor bears fruit, remains to be seen.
Of late there have been increasing news reports of debtors being badly beaten up by thugs after they failed to pay on time.
Some desperate debtors even committed suicide because they could not stand the pressure of repayment deadlines imposed by loan sharks or their intimidation tactics.
The example of a debtor taking out 10,000 baht from a loan shark and ending up servicing only the 20%monthly interest for years, with the principal still standing,is a common one among those who have fallen victim to the vicious cycle of underground debt.
The debt problem has been identified as the most pressing issue faced by low-income earners in various occupations, and these debtors include government officials and state enterprise employees, according to a survey conducted in June by the Suan Dusit Poll.
About 47% of the farmers polled admitted that their most worrisome problem was their debts to the BAAC and to loan sharks.
For the two state-owned banks to start preparing lists of those in need of a refinancing arrangement would be too time-consuming. To expedite the process and make matters less complicated, the banks could simply update the previous lists of poor people prepared by the Interior Ministry during the Thaksin government.
It will be remembered that in 2004 the Thaksin regime attempted to solve the underground debt problem of people in the low-income bracket.
At the time, the Interior Ministry's debt settlement centre reported back to the Thaksin cabinet that it had brought together debtors and creditors for talks and managed to settle 97% of the debts owed by 1.6 million people, with total debt amounting to 108 billion baht.That was indeed a remarkable achievement.
Given the results of the recent Suan Dusit Poll,which show that the problem of debt remains the most pressing worry for people in various occupations and professions, two assumptions may be drawn:1) the claim by the Thaksin administration was exaggerated;and 2) new debts have been incurred.
One of the first challenges for the banks is how to convince lenders of these underground debts to come to the negotiating table and agree to a compromise settlement that would be fair to the debtors and acceptable to the banks.
Since many of these creditors are known to be mafia figures with ruthless thugs in their employ, or are unscrupulous police officers who double as loan sharks,it is doubtful whether bank officials will be able to carry out the job effectively.
In this matter, the involvement of officials from other agencies such as the Anti-Money Laundering Office, could be helpful and provide bank officials with some "teeth" to tackle the problem.
But the biggest challenge will be how to prevent these "rescued" debtors from again falling into the trap of underground debt. Which means the government may have to explore ways and means that would allow low-income earners a less complicated and less expensive access to new funding.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Your health problems could include identity theft
Brandon Sharp, a 37-year-old manager at an oil and gas company in Houston, has never had any real health problems and, luckily, he has never stepped foot in an emergency room.So imagine his surprise a few years ago when he learned he owed thousands of dollars worth of emergency-service medical bills.
Mr Sharp, as it turned out, was a victim of a fastgrowing crime known as medical identity theft.
At the time, Mr Sharp was about to marry and buy his first home. Before applying for a mortgage he requested a copy of his credit report. That is when he found he had several collection notices under his name for emergency room visits throughout the country.
"There was even a $19,000[647,000 baht] bill for a Life Flight air ambulance service in some remote location I'd never heard of," said Mr Sharp, who made this unhappy discovery in 2003."I had emergency room bills from places like Bowling Green, Kansas, where I've never even visited. I'm still cleaning up the mess."
The last time federal data on the crime was collected, for a 2007 report, more than 250,000 Americans a year were victims of medical identity theft. That number has almost certainly increased since then, because of the increased use of electronic medical records systems built without extensive safeguards, said Pam Dixon, executive director of the nonprofit World Privacy Forum and author of a report on medical identity theft.
And uncountable, Ms Dixon said, are the people who do not yet know they are victims. They may not know that their medical information has been tampered with for months or even years until, as in Mr Sharp's case, it shows up in collections on a credit report.
Medical identity theft takes many guises. In Mr Sharp's case, someone got hold of his name and Social Security number and used them to receive emergency medical services, which many hospitals are obliged to provide whether or not a person has insurance. Mr Sharp still does not know whether he fell victim to one calamitous perp who ended up in several emergency rooms or a ring of accident-prone conspirators.
In another variant of the crime, someone can use stolen insurance information, like the basic member ID and group policy number found on insurance cards, to impersonate you - and receive everything from a routine physical to major surgery under your coverage. This is surprisingly easy to do, because many doctors and hospitals do not ask for identification beyond insurance information.
Even more common, however, are cases where medical information is stolen by insiders at a medical office. Thieves download vital personal insurance data and related information from the operation's computerised medical records, then sell it on the black market or use it themselves to make fraudulent billing claims.
In a widely reported case in 2006, a clerk at a Cleveland Clinic branch office in Weston, Florida,downloaded the records of more than 1,100 Medicare patients and gave the information to her cousin, who in turn, made US$2.8 million in bogus claims.
When people are not aware their medical identities have been stolen, insurance companies may simply continue to pay the fraudulent claims without the victim's knowledge. The person might learn of the fraud only when trying to make a legitimate claim, and the insurance company informs them they have reached their lifetime cap on benefits.
Or victims may eventually discover erroneous information in their medical files during a doctor or hospital visit. And that may pose a bigger danger than the financial risks. The medical records may now contain vital information like blood type, allergies, prescription drug use or a history of disease that is just plain wrong. In an emergency,doctors could treat you based on this erroneous information.
And there are none of the consumer protections for medical identity theft victims that exist for traditional identity theft. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, Americans can get a free copy of their credit report each year, put a fraud alert on their account and get erroneous charges deleted from their record. If their credit card is stolen and the thief goes on a spending spree, they're not liable for more than $50 worth of the charges.
With medical identity theft, though, the fraudulent charges can remain unpaid and unresolved for years, permanently damaging their credit rating.Under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) you are entitled to a copy of your medical records, but you may have to pay a hefty fee for them.
Worse, HIPAA privacy rules can actually work against you. Once your medical information is intermingled with someone else's, you may have trouble accessing your files. Privacy laws dictate that the thief's medical information now contained in your records must be kept confidential, too.
Even when you are able to correct a record,say in your doctor's office, the erroneous information may have been passed on to dozens of other health care providers and insurers. Victims must track down and resolve these errors largely on a case-by-case basis, Ms Dixon says.
Medical providers contend that they are taking precautions against identity theft. At Cleveland Clinic, for example, security personnel routinely audit electronic medical record systems, and all records are password-protected. Many Blue Cross Blue Shield insurers use software to screen for spikes in claims from providers that look suspicious. They also work with providers on encrypting medical files and carrying out data access restrictions, said Calvin Sneed, senior anti-fraud consultant at the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.
And some medical centres and doctors' offices now require patients to show photo ID and attach photos to patient charts.
But privacy advocates worry that these steps do not go nearly far enough, especially in light of President Barack Obama's plans to spend $20 billion to increase the use of electronic medical records nationwide as part of the stimulus package."Without aggressive safeguards, we could be building an infrastructure for massive medical fraud,"said Ms Dixon.
Mr Sharp, as it turned out, was a victim of a fastgrowing crime known as medical identity theft.
At the time, Mr Sharp was about to marry and buy his first home. Before applying for a mortgage he requested a copy of his credit report. That is when he found he had several collection notices under his name for emergency room visits throughout the country.
"There was even a $19,000[647,000 baht] bill for a Life Flight air ambulance service in some remote location I'd never heard of," said Mr Sharp, who made this unhappy discovery in 2003."I had emergency room bills from places like Bowling Green, Kansas, where I've never even visited. I'm still cleaning up the mess."
The last time federal data on the crime was collected, for a 2007 report, more than 250,000 Americans a year were victims of medical identity theft. That number has almost certainly increased since then, because of the increased use of electronic medical records systems built without extensive safeguards, said Pam Dixon, executive director of the nonprofit World Privacy Forum and author of a report on medical identity theft.
And uncountable, Ms Dixon said, are the people who do not yet know they are victims. They may not know that their medical information has been tampered with for months or even years until, as in Mr Sharp's case, it shows up in collections on a credit report.
Medical identity theft takes many guises. In Mr Sharp's case, someone got hold of his name and Social Security number and used them to receive emergency medical services, which many hospitals are obliged to provide whether or not a person has insurance. Mr Sharp still does not know whether he fell victim to one calamitous perp who ended up in several emergency rooms or a ring of accident-prone conspirators.
In another variant of the crime, someone can use stolen insurance information, like the basic member ID and group policy number found on insurance cards, to impersonate you - and receive everything from a routine physical to major surgery under your coverage. This is surprisingly easy to do, because many doctors and hospitals do not ask for identification beyond insurance information.
Even more common, however, are cases where medical information is stolen by insiders at a medical office. Thieves download vital personal insurance data and related information from the operation's computerised medical records, then sell it on the black market or use it themselves to make fraudulent billing claims.
In a widely reported case in 2006, a clerk at a Cleveland Clinic branch office in Weston, Florida,downloaded the records of more than 1,100 Medicare patients and gave the information to her cousin, who in turn, made US$2.8 million in bogus claims.
When people are not aware their medical identities have been stolen, insurance companies may simply continue to pay the fraudulent claims without the victim's knowledge. The person might learn of the fraud only when trying to make a legitimate claim, and the insurance company informs them they have reached their lifetime cap on benefits.
Or victims may eventually discover erroneous information in their medical files during a doctor or hospital visit. And that may pose a bigger danger than the financial risks. The medical records may now contain vital information like blood type, allergies, prescription drug use or a history of disease that is just plain wrong. In an emergency,doctors could treat you based on this erroneous information.
And there are none of the consumer protections for medical identity theft victims that exist for traditional identity theft. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, Americans can get a free copy of their credit report each year, put a fraud alert on their account and get erroneous charges deleted from their record. If their credit card is stolen and the thief goes on a spending spree, they're not liable for more than $50 worth of the charges.
With medical identity theft, though, the fraudulent charges can remain unpaid and unresolved for years, permanently damaging their credit rating.Under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) you are entitled to a copy of your medical records, but you may have to pay a hefty fee for them.
Worse, HIPAA privacy rules can actually work against you. Once your medical information is intermingled with someone else's, you may have trouble accessing your files. Privacy laws dictate that the thief's medical information now contained in your records must be kept confidential, too.
Even when you are able to correct a record,say in your doctor's office, the erroneous information may have been passed on to dozens of other health care providers and insurers. Victims must track down and resolve these errors largely on a case-by-case basis, Ms Dixon says.
Medical providers contend that they are taking precautions against identity theft. At Cleveland Clinic, for example, security personnel routinely audit electronic medical record systems, and all records are password-protected. Many Blue Cross Blue Shield insurers use software to screen for spikes in claims from providers that look suspicious. They also work with providers on encrypting medical files and carrying out data access restrictions, said Calvin Sneed, senior anti-fraud consultant at the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.
And some medical centres and doctors' offices now require patients to show photo ID and attach photos to patient charts.
But privacy advocates worry that these steps do not go nearly far enough, especially in light of President Barack Obama's plans to spend $20 billion to increase the use of electronic medical records nationwide as part of the stimulus package."Without aggressive safeguards, we could be building an infrastructure for massive medical fraud,"said Ms Dixon.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Stealing the show
Prosecutors in Miami arrested 28-year-old Albert Gonzales and charged him and two unnamed Russians with leading a gang that stole,oh, roughly 130 million credit- and debit-card account details; debit cards,which are roughly ATM cards which can be used like credit cards, take cash directly out of the owner's account;the worst identity theft case in US history came about because firms like 7-Eleven stood around while hackers walked through their alleged "security" to steal the card information; Gonzales, when arrested, was in prison in New Jersey for stealing information on credit cards from other firms that lied to customers that their information was safe.
Google wants to archive every book in the world and make it available in digital form; a rich, high-flying, hardhitting coalition led by Microsoft, Amazon and Yahoo do not; with amazing chutzpah, the anti-Google crowd called itself the Internet Archive, and claimed that Google could be guilty of "massive copyright infringement" with its initial plans to digitise works in the New York Public Library and the libraries at Stanford and Harvard universities; Google, of course, will show adverts to anyone who wants to read its digitised works, but Amazon and others stand to lose a lot by having them available for free instead of for certain amounts of baht and readable only on devices like the Kindle ebook reader.
So who is outsourcing in China?;take a step forward,Infosys Technologies of India, the country most people think of when they hear the word "outsourcing"; India's second largest technology firm thinks that if it gives some jobs to its China office, it can start tapping the world's second biggest market, which is kosher; but the irony is that Infosys is the second largest outsourcing company in India.
The White House s-l-o-w-l-y admitted spamming millions of Americans over President Barack Obama's health insurance reform plan; it even used taxpaper money to hire a company,Govdelivery , to send the partisan, political spam to a still-secret list of people it will eventually have to make public,probably embarrassingly; originally, the White House lied that it did not sent any such email, and then, caught in the act, bragged that it had stopped doing it, blaming strong Obama supporters for signing up friends (and enemies) for the email; the revelation came after the White House opened an illegal "snitch email line" to collect information on opponents to the insurance plan, and then bragged that it had closed it down; thanks to the aptly named Can-Spam Act passed by the US Congress several years ago, the proObama spam was perfectly legal.
The US justice department said that Oracle can acquire Sun Micrososystems , no (anti-trust) sweat.The big news from Sony Corp ofJapan was little PlayStation 3 Slim, due for release worldwide right now; and Sony is also finally updating the Playstation Network (PSN) to go back on the Internet and serve the teensy PSP Go, also known as a Mini; Sony is hoping that moving down in size will result in moving up in the list, where it trails both Microsoft (XBox) and Nintendo (Wii) for the set-top console market;there will be 15 games available for download immediately - but you are much too foreign for that, only Europeans qualify.
Post offices in India, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore joined a 21-nation consortium to see if RFID chips can speed up moving stuff, including mail; the five-month experiment, monitored from Japan by the Universal Postal Union, will see volunteers mail 24,000 test letters from 38 countries, each with a 10-baht chip in the envelope; the chips may be utilised to help express mail reach higher and more reliable standards by eliminating the need for tracking by hand.
American media mogul Rupert Murdoch decided to buy the iLike social music network to hook up with his slowly dying MySpace social network;iLike folks got a lot less than they hoped,just $20 million of Mr Murdoch's money, and it is unclear what Facebook will do about iLike.
Google wants to archive every book in the world and make it available in digital form; a rich, high-flying, hardhitting coalition led by Microsoft, Amazon and Yahoo do not; with amazing chutzpah, the anti-Google crowd called itself the Internet Archive, and claimed that Google could be guilty of "massive copyright infringement" with its initial plans to digitise works in the New York Public Library and the libraries at Stanford and Harvard universities; Google, of course, will show adverts to anyone who wants to read its digitised works, but Amazon and others stand to lose a lot by having them available for free instead of for certain amounts of baht and readable only on devices like the Kindle ebook reader.
So who is outsourcing in China?;take a step forward,Infosys Technologies of India, the country most people think of when they hear the word "outsourcing"; India's second largest technology firm thinks that if it gives some jobs to its China office, it can start tapping the world's second biggest market, which is kosher; but the irony is that Infosys is the second largest outsourcing company in India.
The White House s-l-o-w-l-y admitted spamming millions of Americans over President Barack Obama's health insurance reform plan; it even used taxpaper money to hire a company,Govdelivery , to send the partisan, political spam to a still-secret list of people it will eventually have to make public,probably embarrassingly; originally, the White House lied that it did not sent any such email, and then, caught in the act, bragged that it had stopped doing it, blaming strong Obama supporters for signing up friends (and enemies) for the email; the revelation came after the White House opened an illegal "snitch email line" to collect information on opponents to the insurance plan, and then bragged that it had closed it down; thanks to the aptly named Can-Spam Act passed by the US Congress several years ago, the proObama spam was perfectly legal.
The US justice department said that Oracle can acquire Sun Micrososystems , no (anti-trust) sweat.The big news from Sony Corp ofJapan was little PlayStation 3 Slim, due for release worldwide right now; and Sony is also finally updating the Playstation Network (PSN) to go back on the Internet and serve the teensy PSP Go, also known as a Mini; Sony is hoping that moving down in size will result in moving up in the list, where it trails both Microsoft (XBox) and Nintendo (Wii) for the set-top console market;there will be 15 games available for download immediately - but you are much too foreign for that, only Europeans qualify.
Post offices in India, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore joined a 21-nation consortium to see if RFID chips can speed up moving stuff, including mail; the five-month experiment, monitored from Japan by the Universal Postal Union, will see volunteers mail 24,000 test letters from 38 countries, each with a 10-baht chip in the envelope; the chips may be utilised to help express mail reach higher and more reliable standards by eliminating the need for tracking by hand.
American media mogul Rupert Murdoch decided to buy the iLike social music network to hook up with his slowly dying MySpace social network;iLike folks got a lot less than they hoped,just $20 million of Mr Murdoch's money, and it is unclear what Facebook will do about iLike.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Thanachart puts off its credit-card launch plans
Thanachart Bank has postponed the launch of credit card business following the Bank of Thailand's advice to wait out the rough economy.
The central bank advised the bank to reconsider the economic environment and credit-card market conditions before introducing a credit card product, even though the central bank approved the bank's proposal in the first quarter of this year.
The recession has led to higher nonperforming loans for the country's credit card issuers. The central bank reported credit card NPLs of 3.1% of total outstanding credit in the first quarter of this year, an increase from 2.9% in the previous quarter.
This is the second postponement by TBank as it originally planned to offer the service in April after receiving central bank approval in March. The bank does offer a credit card to existing clients and its staff.
TBank has not finalised when it will launch a general public credit card, but claims market segmentation is a key factor motivating it to enter this sector.
"It's not easy for a new player in the market during a sluggish economy and given the industry's tough competition.But the bank is ready to enter this business when the time is right," said executive vice-president Nophadon Ruengchinda.
Scotiabank, the bank's major shareholder, fully supports the introduction of credit cards to generate higher income.TBank wants to offer a full range of financial services under a universal banking policy.
In addition, the bank wanted to expand its deposit base to 330 billion baht this year from total outstanding deposits of 310 billion in 2008. The bank has raised deposits to around 312 to 315 billion baht for the first seven months of the year, despite falling liquidity affected by the government's savings bond issue.The bank has around one million customer accounts including deposit and automobile loan clients.
The central bank advised the bank to reconsider the economic environment and credit-card market conditions before introducing a credit card product, even though the central bank approved the bank's proposal in the first quarter of this year.
The recession has led to higher nonperforming loans for the country's credit card issuers. The central bank reported credit card NPLs of 3.1% of total outstanding credit in the first quarter of this year, an increase from 2.9% in the previous quarter.
This is the second postponement by TBank as it originally planned to offer the service in April after receiving central bank approval in March. The bank does offer a credit card to existing clients and its staff.
TBank has not finalised when it will launch a general public credit card, but claims market segmentation is a key factor motivating it to enter this sector.
"It's not easy for a new player in the market during a sluggish economy and given the industry's tough competition.But the bank is ready to enter this business when the time is right," said executive vice-president Nophadon Ruengchinda.
Scotiabank, the bank's major shareholder, fully supports the introduction of credit cards to generate higher income.TBank wants to offer a full range of financial services under a universal banking policy.
In addition, the bank wanted to expand its deposit base to 330 billion baht this year from total outstanding deposits of 310 billion in 2008. The bank has raised deposits to around 312 to 315 billion baht for the first seven months of the year, despite falling liquidity affected by the government's savings bond issue.The bank has around one million customer accounts including deposit and automobile loan clients.
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