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ETA Glossary Online |
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The ETA Encyclopedia of Terminology for the Acquiring Industry is now online! Need a good definition for P2P? Need to know what a Merchant Descriptor is? Our online glossary has the information and its been vetted by industry experts, so you can depend ion it. Give it a try! |
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Featured Articles
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Obama Pledges $15 Billion to Help Small Businesses |
The White House has unveiled a $15 billion plan to ease lending to small businesses, according to the Associated Press.
The announcement came at a meeting at the White House for small business owners and organizations, attended by President Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
The plan unveiled March 16 will use funds from the recentlypassed stiimulus legislation to reduce fees to small business borrowers, increase government loan guarantees through SBA. Geithner also ordered the Internal Revenue Service to issue a series of new rules for temporary but significant tax breaks, meaning that small businesses that earn up to $15 million:
- Will be allowed to claim losses for the past five years in the current tax year,May write off up to $250,000 in investments this year,
- Can reduce estimated tax payments to 90 percent of the previous year's filing,
- Are allowed to take larger depreciation deductions within the first year of property purchases,
- And will see 75 percent of capital gains excluded for those who invest in small businesses.
The plan also requires banks to report regularly on their efforts to lend to small businesses.
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Visa Removes Heartland, RBS Worldpay from PCI List |
Heartland Payment Systems and RBS Worldpay have been removed from Visa Inc.'s list of PCI compliant service providers and will have to undergo new PCI assessments and reapply for inclusion on the compliance list, according to a Visa announcement.
Visa's action came after the two companies revealed they were victimized by hackers who managed to plant malicious software in the companies' internal processing systems and steal card data from the unencrypted data stream. |
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NRF Compares Interchange to Mortgage Crisis |
The National Retail Federation told state attorneys general this week that hefty interchange fees have changed the credit card industry in much the same way lucrative origination fees changed the home mortgage industry and contributed to the current recession.
“We know that one of the causes of our current financial crisis is that the business model with respect to mortgage lending shifted,” NRF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Mallory Duncan said. “Rising interchange has caused the same thing to happen in the credit card market.”
“As a result, it is just as much in the banks’ interest to get as many cards into consumers’ hands to collect the interchange fees as it was for banks to get mortgages issued to collect the origination fees,” Duncan said. “The piles of pre-approved credit card offers in your mailboxes attest to that. Unless we can bring market forces to bear on that incentive, it will only grow.” |
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Charge-Offs Up Slightly, Set New High |
Credit card charge-offs reached a new high of 7.74% in January, after 7.73% in December, and the increasing number of borrowers falling behind on payments means charge-off rates are almost certain to increase as the economy worsens, according to Moody's Credit Card Credit Indices.
Moody's predicted the charge-off rate index could move into double digits by the end of this year if unemployment keeps rising. The government releases the February unemployment rate, which could touch 8%, next Friday.
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Consumer Confidence Continues to Sag |
The Conference Board, which tracks consumer confidence metrics, says the Consumer Confidence Index continued its record-setting downward trajectory this month.
The research organization said the February index stands at a record low of 25, down from 37.4 in January. Research company TNS conducts the monthly Consumer Confidence survey of 5,000 randomly selected U.S. households.
The percentage of respondents who said business conditions are "bad" increased to 51.1% from 47.9% who said so in January. Some 6.8% of consumers said business conditions are "good," up slightly from 6.5% last month.
Respondents anticipating business conditions will worsen during the next six months increased to 40.5% this month from 31.1% in January, while those expecting conditions to improve declined to 8.7% from 12.8%. The percentage of consumers anticipating fewer jobs in the months ahead increased to 47.3% from 36.9%, while those expecting more jobs fell to 7.1% from 9.1%, according to the survey.
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Visa Says No New Breach After All |
In a statement issued February 27, Visa said that alerts recently sent to banks and credit unions warning them about a compromise at a payment processor were related to the ongoing investigation of a previously known breach, rather than a new incident.
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