With all the hype about paying with your mobile, not many people have really seen how very simple the process is.
This short video shows where the world of mobile payments is heading.
Tuesday, 1 March 2011
Monday, 28 February 2011
Assessing the possible sources of systemic risk from hedge funds
These two surveys provide a basis to analyze the systemic risk posed by hedge funds and are conducted every six months as part of the FSA’s work in assessing risks to financial stability of the UK financial system from outside the boundary of prudential regulation.
The full report can be downloaded from the FSA website – CLICK HERE
“Retail Conduct Risk Outlook” published by FSA
RCRO is a key component in the FSA’s consumer protection strategy to identify risks earlier, proactively intervene earlier in the product chain and prevent consumer disadvantages.
The report’s analysis of current and upcoming risks informs how the FSA will set its priorities and deploy its resources. These will be outlined in the FSA’s Business Plan, due for publication next month.
The RCRO analyses the environment in which the FSA, authorized firms and consumers operate. It assesses the main macroeconomic trends, the changing regulatory landscape, developments in firms and markets, and key issues affecting consumers – and the risks these all pose.
Some of these are issues are current, and are subject to ongoing FSA activity, some are emerging, and others have yet to develop but could cause consumer detriment in the future.
Introducing the new publication, Adair Turner, FSA chairman said:
“The Retail Conduct Risk Outlook is a timely reminder of the consumer protection challenges facing the FSA, its successor bodies and financial firms over the coming years. It analyses how environmental trends may influence how firms treat their customers, and assesses the resulting potential for poor customer outcomes. The RCRO informs our dialogue with firms and consumer representatives on conduct risk and will play an essential part in our work to mitigate the potential risks to customers in the future.”
The Retail Conduct Risk Outlook, together with the Prudential Risk Outlook which will be published in March, replaces the Financial Risk Outlook Series. The Financial Risk Outlook has been published since 2002.
The FSA regulates the financial services industry and has four objectives under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000: maintaining market confidence; securing the appropriate degree of protection for consumers; fighting financial crime; and contributing to the protection and enhancement of the stability of the UK financial system.
Friday, 25 February 2011
Card-to-card money transfer system introduced by Visa
The service was activated for the first time by Russia's “1st Processing Bank” and Ukraine's largest bank, “PrivatBank” earlier this week.
Visa is in the process of rolling the service out internationally, with a view to capturing market share from PayPal, and other emerging mobile remittance platforms.
Using the new service is simple. Senders provide their bank with the recipient's Visa card number to initiate the payment. Visa says the process does away with the need for senders to fill out complicated forms and provide routing information such as bank codes and branch addresses.
When processed through VisaNet, funds are credited directly to the eligible Visa credit, debit or prepaid account within minutes, freeing recipients from having to visit agent locations to collect cash.
Vikram Modi, Head of Digital Money Transfer and Personal Payments for Visa’s international markets, said that this milestone for Visa in Russia and Ukraine is only the beginning of a new wave of personal payment services on Visa cards – including person-to-person payments, mobile money transfer, electronic bill pay, prepaid reloads and intra-account transfers.
Thursday, 24 February 2011
In-House Training Benefits
Financial Services Authority fines mortgage firm for irresponsible lending and poor treatment of arrears customers
On lending practices, DB Mortgages failed to show that customers could afford mortgages sold where the term continued after their retirement, failed to consider whether there were cheaper mortgages available for customers seeking self-certified mortgages, and failed to ensure that customers had thought about where they would live at the end of the term if they needed to sell their house to pay off an interest-only mortgage.
On treatment of customers in arrears, DB Mortgages did not consider customers’ individual circumstances or tell them about the range of options that were available to them, and applied charges that were unfair because they were charged repeatedly or did not accurately reflect the cost of administering an account in arrears.
Margaret Cole, the FSA’s managing director of enforcement and financial crime, said:
"Firms need to understand that we will not tolerate lax lending practices and unfair treatment of customers in arrears.
''Firms which fail in their obligations to customers should expect not only a substantial fine but also that they will have to pay back customers who have been disadvantaged by their failings''.
The FSA has taken into account that DB Mortgages worked in an open and co-operative way with the FSA and has made significant improvements to its arrears handling procedures. As a result of early settlement, the firm also qualified for a 30% discount under the FSA’s settlement discount scheme. Without the discount, the fine would have been £1.2 million.
Securities and Exchange Commission charges seven in global warming pump-and-dump
The SEC alleges that the group included stock promoters, traders, and a lawyer who wrote a fraudulent opinion letter. The scheme resulted in more than $7 million in illicit profits from sales of stock in CO2 Tech Ltd. at artificially inflated prices. Despite touting impressive business relationships and anti-global warming technology innovations, CO2 Tech did not have any significant assets or operations. The company was purportedly based in London, and its stock prices were quoted in the Pink Sheets.
According to the SEC’s complaint, the scheme was perpetrated through Red Sea Management Ltd., a Costa Rican asset protection company that laundered millions of dollars in illicit trading proceeds out of the United States on behalf of its clients. The US Department of Justice has also announced related criminal charges against six of the individuals.
“This group of illicit stock promoters sought to hide their scheme behind offshore entities, but their misconduct was exposed by the excellent cooperation of law enforcement agencies here and abroad,” said Cheryl Scarboro, Associate Director in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.
The SEC’s complaint alleges that CO2 Tech falsely touted business relationships that the company had not formed, including a relationship with the Boeing Company. In fact, there were no communications, correspondence or understandings between CO2 Tech and Boeing.
The SEC alleges that certain of the individuals initiated the pump-and-dump of CO2 Tech by utilizing the services of Krome, who issued a fraudulent opinion letter to enable them to have the restrictive legend removed from their CO2 Tech stock certificate. This provided them nearly full control over the freely tradeable shares of CO2 Tech stock. They then hired Red Sea to sell massive quantities of CO2 Tech stock to the investing public through its web of nominee brokerage accounts. Zigdon caused the materially false and misleading information about CO2 Tech to be disseminated in press releases and on CO2 Tech’s website.
According to the SEC’s complaint, these individuals redistributed the false information through websites, spam e-mails and fax blasts. A group of stock promoters were also enlisted who then executed illegal “matched orders” with Red Sea’s nominee brokerage accounts in order to “jump-start” the market and increase the price of the stock. As a result of the false media campaign and the illegal matched orders, the market price of CO2 Tech stock increased 81 percent increase in one day and trading volume increased 1,573 percent.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
