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|From: Glenn Petersen||5/5/2017 11:43:01 AM|
|An obscure regulatory debate has put the entire U.S. fintech community on edge|
by Nik Milanovic ( @NikMilanovic)
April 24, 2017
The future of American fintech may hang in the balance of a pitched battle that has grown in intensity over the past four months. An obscure request for comments on regulatory standards, released by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) last March, has since evolved into a complex turf war between the states and Washington, DC.
Caught in the middle is the entire online finance industry, raising the question of just what a “fintech” business really is. Though it hasn’t made many national headlines, this fight may determine the future of innovation, competition and survival in the fintech world.
The debate centers around a proposal made in December by Thomas J. Curry, the Comptroller of the Currency, in which the OCC details a program for fintech companies to apply for charters as “special purpose national banks.” The charter, which is optional for fintechs, is meant to provide companies with a stamp of approval from the OCC for having generally strong compliance practices. This would essentially be a way for Washington to separate the well-run, “safe” fintech businesses of the world (e.g. PayPal) from the shady, exploitative ones (e.g. check cashers and payday lenders.)
In theory, the idea has a lot of merit. Though fintech can still be thought of as a relatively young industry, it is growing quickly enough that it may soon determine how most people save, exchange and invest their money. This proposal comes at a time when the world — from the U.K. to Germany to India to Korea — is evaluating what kind of guard rails the fintech sector needs.
When the industry is all grown up, consumers will want protections in place that prevent bad actors from misleading them, misusing their private information or stealing their money. And even if individual fintech businesses look to be compliant on their own, some national oversight might be needed to get ahead of the same kind of collective practices that brought about the financial crash in 2007.
With this in mind, the OCC wants to take the first step to create a uniform, nationwide set of standards for fintechs. But what should have been an uncontroversial first step instead unearthed a slew of objections from a complex web of stakeholders. These parties quickly raised concerns about stifling innovation, overstepping the limits of federal authority and understanding the nuances of fintech, among many others. At the very heart of this battle is the question of what fintech really is. And as evidenced by the debate, that question is much harder to answer than it may seem.
The history of finance, technology, the OCC and the need for regulation
The idea of fintech regulation is nothing new or novel. The OCC was itself established by the U.S. government in one of the first efforts to create standard national banking practices. Before the Civil War and the National Bank Act of 1863, states had the freedom to issue their own legal tender. Often, this meant the dollars someone was paid in one state wouldn’t be accepted in the next state over, or would be worthless if the currency reserves of the issuing state became insolvent. Some states, such as Wisconsin, outlawed banks altogether, while others like Michigan let anyone open a bank and suffered massive fraud as a result.
Early financial technology: A Tennessee regional two-dollar bill before the Federal Reserve. (Source: Vern Potter Currency.)
It was only after the Civil War that Washington began enforcing national financial consistency, a move that generated massive protests at the time from states, who saw the move as a federal overreach to consolidate power over local government.
In many tech fields today, as the industry grows, so do the questions about regulation. The questions of “whether Airbnb hosts should be subject to hotel laws” or “whether Uber drivers are employees or contractors” are just two notable examples in a long history of technology’s legal debates. Fintech, at the intersection of finance and technology, is obviously more poised for regulatory discussion than most tech.
It’s easy to see why fintech worries regulators and the public alike. As long as finance has existed, so have bad actors looking to take advantage of unwary counterparties. Julius Caesar set one of the first interest rate caps — at 12 percent — for the Roman Empire to combat loan sharks.
The early Quran still sets the standard for many Islamic banks, which must conduct Sharia-compliant finance. In the antebellum U.S., private lenders charged up to 500 percent interest to borrowers due to a dearth of banks and government regulation.
Financial malpractice is just as pernicious today. In its first five years, from 2011 to 2016, the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) received more than 900,000 consumer complaints about financial services providers.
Fintechs themselves have not been free from fraud and scandal. The publicly traded TrustBuddy, based in Sweden, was forced into bankruptcy for massive misappropriations of investor funds. Cincinnati-based SoMoLend came under similar fire for misleading investors. And China’s peer-to-peer lending sector has spent years battling its way out of the shadow of massive fraud that has tainted the industry.
Fintech is growing quickly around the world. (Source: CB Insights)
Given the natural tendency of unscrupulous actors to exploit regulatory loopholes in finance, it’s no wonder the OCC wants to strike first to prevent the next financial apocalypse. That’s why, in March of last year, it released a whitepaper on innovation in financial services detailing eight “guiding principles” it would use to foster a healthy fintech sector, including, among others:
Yet in November, when Thomas J. Curry announced the OCC’s plan for a national charter, all hell broke loose.
- Encourage responsible innovation that provides fair access to financial services and fair treatment of consumers.
- Encourage banks of all sizes to integrate responsible innovation into their strategic planning.
- Collaborate with other regulators.
The controversy: turf wars, anti-competition and solutions for problems that don’t exist
The OCC’s call for a national charter has been, to say the least, controversial. The proposal itself, only 16 pages in length, designates fintech firms as “special purpose banks,” which would be subject to minimum requirements around governance structure, capital, liquidity, compliance, financial inclusion and continuity strategy. This all sounds pretty benign — who would want to give their money to a company that didn’t have those safeguards in place?
As it turned out, the proposal caused a firestorm among numerous fintech industry stakeholders. Weirdly enough, fintech companies, which will arguably be the most impacted by the charter, have been relatively quiet. The strongly vocal opponents of the charter have been an alphabet soup of state regulators, who view this move as a broad overreach of federal authority:
The list of states goes on. It’s fair to say they feel threatened by the proposed charter’s impact on their authority. But is it just a territorial spat, a turf war over who gets to oversee the fintech industry? Brian Knight, writing for American Banker, does an excellent job summarizing and rebutting the states’ positions:
- New York: DFS Superintendent Maria T. Vullo in January released a stern public comment letter to the OCC. In it, she argued that banks with national charters don’t have to abide by some state lending rules, and this charter could allow payday lenders to sign up for protections meant for tech companies. As she commented, “Fintech may be a catchy new word, but the concept of online finance isn’t new.” New York plans to move forward with its own rule proposals for fintech businesses.
- Florida: OFRC Commissioner Drew Breakspear called the charter a “solution to a problem that does not exist.”
- Ohio and Oregon: Senators wrote in to the OCC saying this would complicate existing state fintech laws and initiatives.
- California: Jan Lynn Owen, the commissioner of the CA DBO, argued that the proposal would complicate the DBO’s efforts to compile data on online marketplace lenders — such as fintech firms SoFi, Lending Club, Funding Circle and Prosper — in order to separate them from payday lenders.
- The “Dangerous” Argument: Federal laws will pre-empt states’ abilities to regulate fintechs within their borders.
- As Knight points out, “national banks are still subject to many state consumer protection laws as well as federal consumer protection laws. Fraud, discrimination and unfair and deceptive practices are all prohibited and the OCC will perform regular examinations on national banks.”
- The “Unnecessary” Argument: States can already enact better laws to regulate fintech, so the OCC’s authority in the matter is redundant and unnecessary.
- As per Knight, “those laws remain an ever-changing maze that requires constant monitoring of more than 50 different sets of rules. Conversely, the situation is better for commercial banks; there is greater consistency between federal and state law, and therefore greater consistency between national and state-chartered banks.” (Morning Consult also points out that, where states like North Carolina have been very friendly to fintechs, states like New York and Connecticut have been much tougher — a feature that allows fintechs to engage in regulatory arbitrage across state lines.)
- The “State Sovereignty” Argument: The OCC is overstepping their authority by overruling states that should be able to freely impose their own regulations.
- “If — as is likely — the benefits of state-by-state regulation are outweighed by the loss of opportunity and access imposed on consumers, federal involvement ca
The patchwork of state regulators is so fragmented that you need a map to navigate it. Source: Faisal Khan.
Knight’s analysis exposes the states’ arguments for what they are: self-defense against a perceived territorial encroachment by the OCC. Even so, to give some credit to regulators, there are still very real reasons this charter could easily hurt the not-nascent-but-not-yet-matured fintech sector in many ways:
- Bureaucracy: The OCC has granted only one national bank charter in the last six years. Would it move quicker to enable fintechs? It’s difficult to see how it would.
- One-size-fits-all: Fintechs are too diverse to be included in a charter generally drafted to legitimize deposit-holding institutions. As The Hill notes, this charter could lump together “payday lenders, marketplace lenders, and peer-to-peer payment companies” with robo-advisers, bank service providers, insurance tech, stock market apps, etc… Should they all be treated as banks?
- A competitive moat: Though the charter could narrow the gap between fintechs and banks, allowing fintechs to compete nationally instead of applying for state-by-state licenses, it could also lead to a “ thinning of the herd” by being too cumbersome or expensive for young companies. This could easily stifle innovation.
- More compliance risks: Fintechs could find themselves written into a narrower and narrower regulatory box, increasing the chances they’re shut down for benign compliance missteps.
- Balkanized regulators: Similar to the CFPB’s “no action letter,” which promises the bureau won’t take action against companies that meet its standards, gaining a charter from the OCC still won’t shield fintechs from other regulators who may have different rules.
This wide variety of businesses could all be lumped together as “banks” under the OCC charter. Source: CB Insights.
Predictably, it seems national regulatory agencies such as Moody’s are in favor of the charter. Credit unions, which see the charter as a way to level the playing field with fintechs, are also in favor. The Conference of State Bank Supervisors is against it. It seems everyone but fintechs themselves has an opinion on the charter.
In light of all the controversy around establishing a national fintech charter, can a compromise be reached?
The path forward: what would a good fintech charter look like?
Despite the heated pushback against the OCC’s charter plan, there are still very good reasons for centralized, consistent and national oversight of the fintech industry. As ex-Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner notes in Stress Test, his excellent memoir of the financial crisis, one of the reasons the Great Recession was so bad was that the “safeguards for traditional banks weren’t tough enough […] but what made our storm into a perfect storm was nonbanks behaving like banks without bank supervision or bank protections.”
If the fintech sector continues to grow as its leaders project it to, it may one day affect the lives of most Americans. It’s important to put the guard rails in place now to make sure a systemic shock doesn’t leave those Americans footing the bill.
The OCC’s proposal is probably the wrong solution. But, contrary to Florida OFRC Commissioner Breakspear’s assertion, that does not mean the problem does not exist. By launching a discussion of a national charter, the OCC has taken an important first step.
The state-by-state system has failed us before. As Geithner notes, it “led to venue shopping and other forms of regulatory arbitrage, as well as blind-men-and-the-elephant problems where no regulator had a truly comprehensive view of an institution or the responsibility for monitoring it.” And its Balkanization impairs the kind of federal oversight needed to detect nationwide trends as they develop: credit defaults in California could affect consumers in Texas, digital currency scams in Florida could inform regulators in New York, etc…
Then what would a good set of national fintech regulations look like?
It’s unclear whether the OCC is the best organization for the job. Many other federal organizations, such as the SEC, FINRA and the embattled CFPB, also have overlapping interests in the fintech industry. Maybe, as Brian Knight suggests, states can take the initiative by banding together to form a set of national rules, or maybe they can work with Congress to establish a new fintech regulator independent of the OCC. The Hill points out that one good example to follow is that of The Fed in its study of the payments industry.
- It would set basic underlying consumer protections. For instance, no fintech firm should be allowed to misrepresent its fees — and this is something that shouldn’t vary by state.
- It would preserve state sovereignty. States don’t have to all agree to one usury limit. But they can agree to a framework for how to establish usury limits that prevents lenders from cross-border regulatory arbitrage.
- It would recognize the heterogeneity of fintech. Most fintechs disintermediate banking services, each tackling only one of a wide range of services. On top of that, some fintechs (Zopa, SoFi) are themselves starting to build banks, while others (Moven, Monzo, Atom) want to be “bank-lites.” A banking charter runs the risk of being too broad (and weak) or too narrow (and inflexible). Regulation should be flexible enough to encompass new fintech models as they develop, without risking losing its teeth.
- It would promote innovation while following the Hippocratic Oath of first doing no harm. This could mean eliminating the burden fintechs face today of having to apply for 50 state licenses, while not imposing an onerous federal licensing cost and burden on them.
At the same time, it’s notable that one of the voices least present in this debate is that of fintechs themselves. While I won’t claim to have any more comprehensive of a perspective on the issue, my background comes from five years in the fintech industry (since before “fintech” was a common phrase). I’m surprised that commentators haven’t picked up on some great guiding examples already set by the fintech sector:
The Marketplace Lending Association and the Small Business Borrowers’ Bill of Rights are two industry organizations established for online lenders to self-regulate by adhering to high standards of transparency, fairness and consumer protection. (Full disclosure: One of the founders of these organizations is my former employer, Funding Circle.) In the U.K., online lenders (including Funding Circle) petitioned the Financial Conduct Authority to regulate the industry, which it began doing in April 2014. These examples can be instructive for U.S. regulators seeking to get their arms around the large and messy industry.
This month, Thomas J. Curry will step down from his post in charge of the OCC. The CFPB is under fire from Republicans and the Trump administration and may not survive much longer. It is unclear whether the push for federal oversight of fintech will survive this debate or simply die out, but striking down attempts at federal regulation ends up legitimizing illegitimacy.
Like many black markets, alternative finance and shadow banking would be safer if it were brought into the light and monitored. As Geithner says, during the banking crisis, “The financial cops weren’t authorized to patrol the system’s worst neighborhoods.” We can prevent the next financial crisis today… but we need to be willing to take the first step.
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|From: Glenn Petersen||5/15/2017 8:22:38 PM|
|Fintech is beginning to disrupt the remittance business.|
The Fight For The $400 Billion Business Of Immigrants Sending Money Home
A new class of startups is using bitcoin and the blockchain to drastically lower fees as they try to grab a share of the remittance market from old competitors like Western Union.
By Ben Schiller
04.28.17 | 6:00 am
“Dollars wrapped with love.” That’s how Dilip Ratha describes remittances—the money immigrants send home to their families and friends. “There are millions of people who migrate each year. With the help of the family, they cross oceans, they cross deserts, they cross rivers, they cross mountains,” Ratha, an economist, said in a 2014 TED talk. “They risk their lives to realize a dream, and that dream is as simple as having a decent job somewhere so they can send money home and help the family, which has helped them before.”
For a long time, economists tended to overlook these dollars, but recently they’ve come to appreciate their importance. Remittances, which totaled $429 billion in 2016, are worth three times as much as all the foreign aid doled out by governments worldwide, and it’s likely the money is more effective dollar-for-dollar. Unlike aid, which is notorious for passing through corrupt middlemen and inefficient bureaucracies, remittances go directly to recipients, where they pay for schooling, medical expenses, and new fridge-freezers. In some poor countries, like Somalia or Haiti, remittances make up more than a quarter of national income. And statistics show that remittances tend to hold up even in times of crisis. After the financial crash of 2007-2008, the intra-family flows continued even as private capital ground to a halt.
Sending money to Africa from the U.S. or Europe sometimes costs an extra 15%, and within Africa, the fees can be stupendous. [Illustration: mooltfilm/iStock0]
But that’s not to say that remittances couldn’t be more effective. New startups are aiming to do for international payments what Venmo and others have done for domestic transactions: make transfers mobile, painless, and social. “In 5 years or 10 years, the whole idea of a remittance or cross-border payments will be gone, just like we don’t have cross-border email, or cross-border web browsing. It’s just the internet,” says Jeremy Allaire, CEO and founder of Circle, a blockchain-based service that’s working on the remittance market.
Currently, it’s expensive to send money overseas, which is especially damaging for the immigrants sending small savings home to the developing world. The World Bank says transaction fees average 7.45% globally, and, in many remittance corridors, they’re a lot higher than that. Sending money to Africa from the U.S. or Europe sometimes costs an extra 15%, and within Africa, the fees can be stupendous. To transfer 33,000 Angola Kwanza (about $200) from Luanda to Namibia costs about $50, according to the World Bank’s price database.
But in the last 10 years the average global fees have fallen by about 2.5%, which equates to about $90 billion in extra love-dollars, the World Bank’s Marco Nicoli says. The D.C. institution works to bring more transparency to remittance pricing (the database lets you compare providers), and it lends money to poorer countries to beef up their payment systems. A further 5% drop in fees would mean $16 billion in extra annual income for recipients, it says.
In his speech, Ratha suggests several reforms, including loosening money laundering regulations on amounts lower than $1,000, ending monopoly arrangements between post offices (which often disburse remittances) and money transfer companies, and creating a new low-cost remittance system funded by philanthropy. But new technology and the boldness of an emerging group of money transfer startups–like Circle, and others like Abra, Transferwise, and WorldRemit–could also have a profound impact. The combination of the internet, mobile phones, bitcoin, and the blockchain could dramatically reduce the cost of sending money internationally, say experts. That is, if the startups are allowed to grow unimpeded by unnecessary regulation and special interest griping, including from banks and exchange companies that currently gain handsomely from the fees and inefficiency in the space.
“Money transfer companies structure their fees to milk the poor.” [Photo: Flickr user Peter Robinett]
The High Costs Of Sending Cash
There are several reasons why the cost of sending money cross-border is currently so high. Nicoli notes that most payments start and finish as cash, which means that human agents need to be employed to receive and disburse the money, raising the price for everyone.
Bill Barhydt, founder and CEO of Abra, points to all the “hands in the pie” in traditional transactions, like those orchestrated by market leaders like Western Union, MoneyGram, and RIA. Remittances can be initiated via an agent (like those affiliated with Western Union or MoneyGram), a bank branch, a post office, the internet, and via mobile. So there’s someone at the cash window taking the money. There’s the agent’s bank. There are “correspondent banks” on both sides of a national border. There’s the bank for the agent in the receiving country. There’s the disbursing agent. There’s Western Union or MoneyGram itself.
Founded in 1851 as a telegraph company, Western Union has more than 550,000 agents in 200 countries. It completed 268 million consumer transactions in 2016, worth $80 billion. Together with MoneyGram and RIA, it controls more than a quarter of the international market. And, as its longevity implies, it’s been adept at beating back competition before now. The company generated revenue of $5.4 billion in 2016, with operating income of $484 million.
In an interview with Fast Company, Western Union’s chief information officer David Thompson says the cost of regulatory compliance, including new anti-money laundering regulations introduced after 9/11, raises the cost of sending money internationally. (Banks and transfer companies are now required to identify customers and report transactions in excess of $10,000). But the compliance burden also makes it difficult for new entrants to eat into its business.
“Western Union is in a highly regulated industry globally, requiring licenses in every jurisdiction you operate in. You need a strong money laundering and broad risk program in place,” Thompson says. “Technology doesn’t solve all those business and regulatory issues. Some pure technology plays forget that. We live in a world with criminal networks and entities that you have to keep out of your infrastructure. There’s a pretty high barrier to entry because of the risks associated with the market.”
In his TED talk, Ratha has a less complicated explanation for the high cost of remittances. “Money transfer companies structure their fees to milk the poor,” he says. Development groups often point to a lack of competition and financial regulation in poorer countries. African migrants in particular pay a so-called “ super-tax” on international transfers, and the market power of MoneyGram and Western Union is likely one proximate cause. In a 2014 report, the London-based Overseas Development Institute said the “two companies account for $586 million of the loss associated with the remittance ‘super tax,’ part of it through opaque foreign currency charges.” Ratha says governments should require higher standards of transparency from money transfer companies on exchange rates, and the fees and taxes they charge both senders and recipients, so it’s easier for immigrants to shop around. Some smaller exchange providers even charge fees to people collecting remittances, further inflating costs, he says.
The promise of bitcoin and blockchain-based startups is that they dis-intermediate corresponding banks from the settlement process. [Illustration: mooltfilm/iStock]
The good news is that a string of competitors are now appearing, aiming to cut prices and improve transparency. London-based WorldRemit calls itself the “WhatsApp of Money.” Started by Ismail Ahmed, a Somali-born former United Nations official, it facilitates mobile money (or airtime) transfers to more than 140 destinations and now does 580,000 transfers every month. The London startup has received more than $150 milllon in venture capital from investors who backed Facebook, Spotify, Netflix, and Slack. Ahmed’s seed money actually came via the UN in the form of compensation for wrongful workplace treatment. He had alleged corruption in the UN’s development program in Somalia and faced retaliation (a potential employer was told not to hire him) after making his claims public.
TransferWise, set up by two former Skype employees, tries to bypass bank wire fees. It pairs up people needing to send money in different directions, so the money never needs to go cross-border. So, if you want to send $100 from the U.S. to Germany, you put the money in the company’s U.S. account. TransferWise then finds someone who wants to send money from Germany to the U.S. and that person pays their money into its German account. Instead of either side paying a hefty wire transfer fee, the transfer is made domestically, with TransferWise covering the balance. The idea has been called “Hawala with paperwork” after the traditional Islamic banking system whereby value moves around an international network of brokers without physical money ever actually being transferred. TransferWise charges 1% of the transfer amount up to $5,000, with no additional charges hidden in the exchange rate conversion (Banks, it says, will often exchange your money at less than the official rate, pocketing the difference on top of a fee).
TransferWise, which has Peter Thiel and Richard Branson as investors, recently announced that it’s integrating with Facebook’s Messenger Chat service, as are a host of other major players, including PayPal, MasterCard, American Express, and Western Union. The latter also has mobile partnerships with Viber and WeChat (though this hasn’t stopped criticism that it obfuscates pricing through a mixture of fees and exchange rate mystery).
The promise of bitcoin and blockchain-based startups is that they dis-intermediate corresponding banks from the settlement process. Remittances have traditionally been settled using wire or SWIFT–transfers within a network of international banks. But they don’t allow small payments of $5 or $10, and, because of fixed fees, they’re relatively expensive for amounts of, say, $200 or $500, say remittance experts. Many new startups (though not TransferWise) offer greater convenience at either end of the transfer (the money appears on your phone’s wallet or in your online bank account). But they still go through the traditional banking system, so their potential in lowering costs is limited.
“We have seen more innovation in the delivery channel stage of the transaction where players allow transactions to be initiated over the internet in different forms,” says Nicoli at the World Bank. “Ultimately, however, most of these models have to rely on the corresponding banking network. This is where where the potential of [distributed ledger technology] and blockchain innovation is.”
Though bitcoin itself has a sometimes unsavory reputation, the distributed ledger technology underlying bitcoin is now being developed as a settlement engine for all kinds of financial products, from stocks and bonds to loyalty points and insurance contracts. Blockchains–ledgers running simultaneously on millions of devices–offer cheaper, more secure record-keeping than the banking system. And, they can be used to transfer virtual currencies (like bitcoin) as proxies for traditional currency exchanges. Thus, they have potential to dramatically reduce costs.
“As blockchain technology matures, it has true disruptive potential to bring the cost of remittances to nearly zero and facilitate instant secure payments anywhere in the world,” writes Talie Baker in an Aite Group report about emerging remittance startups.
Abra’s customers never know they’ve just undergone a bitcoin transaction.
Abra, which says it can reduce transaction costs by up to 90%, has an ingenious way around the international settlements system. It uses bitcoin to transfer value instead. You load money from a bank account or human “teller,” to a mobile phone wallet. Abra converts the money into bitcoin, transfers it across the digital currency’s blockchain, then settles the amount in a local currency on the other end.
Importantly, customers never know they’ve just undergone a bitcoin transaction: Abra’s app looks and feels like any one of dozens of money transfer apps (like Venmo). And Abra also offers a service for people who don’t have bank accounts. It signs up “tellers” in different countries who, like Uber drivers, act as “human ATMs” on its behalf. Using the app, you find someone nearby willing to convert your cash to bitcoin. You meet up, hand over what you want to send via Abra, and the teller takes a small fee for offering the service (they set the rate themselves). In such a way, Abra hopes to build out an extensive network of agents, but without making a hefty investment in infrastructure.
Having launched in 2016 in the U.S.-Philippines corridor, in March the company expanded to 155 countries and now accepts and disburses money in 54 local currencies. Abra, which has received capital from American Express Ventures and other high-profile VCs, charges no fees for transferring money (though you need to pay your teller if you don’t want to use the bank account method). It makes money on the exchange rate, though it claims to offer better prices than Western Union.
Barhydt says Abra has tellers in 150 cities so far. Each has to undergo a one-to-one interview to ensure suitability. Most are already trading in bitcoin either independently or via a digital currency exchange (like Kraken).
Unlike other remittance startups, Abra doesn’t have banking licenses in all its locations, instead classifying itself as “non-custodial” and therefore exempt from regulations. Circle, on the other hand, uses bitcoin for transfers but takes possession of funds during transfers. It’s focused less on unbanked consumers and remittances, though that’s also part of its target business.
As Baker says in her report, using bitcoin is not without risks, because bitcoin’s legality is still questioned in some places. “Bitcoin is still an experimental currency in active development, and nobody can predict its staying power. It is not an official currency, and some jurisdictions even consider it illegal,” she notes (though Baker is excited by Abra and Circle, describing them in an email as “viable business models” with the potential to give Western Union and MoneyGram “a run for the money.”)
Allaire, at Circle, expects the exoticness of blockchain and bitcoin to retreat into the background as the technologies gain wider acceptance, including for remittance payments. “Consumers don’t care about the name of the technology. They want services that let them do things faster and cheaper,” he says. Backed by Goldman Sachs, Circle is already transacting more than $1 billion a year.
Western Union is still working out its approach to blockchain and bitcoin. It has invested in Digital Currency Group, a major fund for such startups, and last year it ran a small pilot program with Ripple, a payment protocol provider. But Thompson says the trial didn’t deliver “significant business value” or “return sufficient value for our shareholders,” and the idea isn’t being pursued.
For the moment, Western Union isn’t prepared to tear up its existing business, even as it migrates to mobile and Facebook Messenger. “We feel that the investment we’ve made in our infrastructure, our team, our processes and policies are our secret sauce, and that’s why Western Union has been in business for 165 years,” Thompson says.
Maybe so. But, with all the startups gunning for its business, Western Union is going to have to work harder than ever to maintain its position. The next few years will dictate if Western Union can last another 165 years or whether its high-fee model–one that appears injurious to many immigrants around the world–can survive in its current form.
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|From: Glenn Petersen||6/21/2017 11:41:47 PM|
|Fintech in China. Ant Financial is an affiliate of Alibaba. Unfortunately, it was spun out of Alibaba prior to the IPO. It is controlled by Jack Ma. There are reports that it will IPO in Hong Kong later this year.|
Meet the Chinese Finance Giant That’s Secretly an AI Company
The smartphone payments business Ant Financial is using computer vision, natural language processing, and mountains of data to reimagine banking, insurance, and more. 0
by Will Knight
MIT Technology Review
June 16, 2017
Ant Financial announces a developer initiative in 2016.
If you get into a car accident in China in the near future, you'll be able to pull out your smartphone, take a photo, and file an insurance claim with an AI system.
That system, from Ant Financial, will automatically decide how serious the ding was and process the claim accordingly with an insurer. It shows how the company—which already operates a hugely successful smartphone payments business in China—aims to upend many areas of personal finance using machine learning and AI.
The e-commerce giant Alibaba created Ant in 2014 to operate Alipay, a ubiquitous mobile payments service in China. If you have visited the country in recent years, then you have probably seen people paying for meals, taxi rides, and a whole lot more by scanning a code with the Alipay app. The system is far more popular than the wireless payments systems offered in the U.S. by Apple, Google, and others. The company boasts more than 450 million active users compared to about 12 million for Apple Pay.
Ant’s progress will be significant to the future of the financial industry beyond China, including in the U.S., where the company is expanding its interests. The company’s approach goes around existing institutions to target individuals and small businesses who lack access to conventional financial services. Ant said in April of this year that it is buying the U.S. money-transfer service MoneyGram for $880 million. The deal is subject to regulatory approval and should close in the second half of this year. The company could well apply the technologies it is developing to its overseas subsidiaries. A spokesperson for the company says it hasn’t brought Alipay to the U.S. because existing financial systems provide less of an opportunity.
Yuan (Alan) Qi, a vice president and chief data scientist at Ant, says the company’s AI research is shaping its growth. “AI is being used in almost every corner of Ant’s business,” he says. “We use it to optimize the business, and to generate new products.”
The accident-processing system is a good example of how advances in AI can flip an existing system on its head, Qi says. It has become possible to automate this kind of image processing in recent years using a machine-learning technology known as deep learning. By feeding thousands of example images into a very large neural network, it is possible to train it to recognize things that even a human may struggle to spot (see “ 10 Breakthrough Technologies 2013: Deep Learning”).
“We use computer vision for a job that is boring but also difficult,” Qi says. “I looked at the images myself, and I found it pretty difficult to tell the damage level.”
Qi speaks a mile a minute, which seems appropriate given how quickly his company seems to be moving. Dressed in a smart shirt and dress pants on a sweltering afternoon in Beijing this May, shortly after giving a speech at a major AI conference, Qi explained that the company considers itself not a “fintech” business but a “techfin” one, due to the importance of technology.
Ant already operates a range of other financial services besides Alipay. For instance, it provides small loans to those without a bank account. It assesses a person’s creditworthiness based on his or her spending history and other data including friends' credit scores (see “ Alipay Leads a Financial Revolution in China”).
Ant’s creditworthiness system also provides a high-tech way to obtain various services, such as hotel bookings, without a deposit. Qi says that Ant uses advanced machine-learning algorithms and custom programmable chips to crunch huge quantities of user data in a few seconds, to determine whether to grant a customer a loan, for instance.
A recent hire offers some measure of Ant’s intent to apply artificial intelligence to finance. This May the company announced that Michael Jordan, a professor at the University of Berkeley and a major figure in the field of machine learning and statistics, would become chair of the company’s scientific board.
Qi is no slouch, either. He got his PhD from MIT and became a professor in the computer science department at Purdue before joining Alibaba in 2014. Once there, he developed Alibaba’s first voice-recognition system for automating customer calls.
“We built a system, based on deep learning, to carry on conversations; to provide answers to your questions,” Qi says. This chatbot system also taps into a knowledge base of information created by Ant, and is an example of how researchers are increasingly combining cutting-edge machine-learning techniques with conventional representations of knowledge. “Human language is still very hard for a machine to understand,” Qi says.
In March this year, the chatbot system surpassed human performance in terms of customer satisfaction, says Qi. “There are many, many chatbot companies in Silicon Valley. We are the only one that can say, confidently, they do better than human beings,” he says.
Ant’s success to date has certainly been impressive. Credit Suisse estimates that it manages 58 percent of mobile payments in China. A key competitor has emerged in recent years with WeixinPay, from the mobile chat giant Tencent, now accounting for almost 40 percent of the market. Ant remains enormously valuable, though. Earlier this year, a Hong Kong investment group valued the company at $75 billion. The company was expected make an initial public offering this year, but that now looks more likely to happen in 2018.
Ant is also increasingly looking to expand its interests overseas. The company has invested almost $1 billion in Paytm, an Indian payments company. It has also invested in Ascend, a Thai online payments business, and M-Daq, a Singaporean financial business. Ant apparently also sees investments and acquisitions as a way to bolster its technological prowess. Last year the company acquired EyeVerify, a U.S. company that makes eye recognition software.
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|From: Glenn Petersen||8/5/2017 10:57:42 PM|
|Money continues to pour into the sector, though at lower valuations. LendingClub still has a valuation of $2.1 billion.|
Fintech lender Prosper's valuation dives 70% in latest funding round
Riley McDermid Digital Producer
San Francisco Business Times
Aug 4, 2017, 11:50am PDT
San Francisco fintech Prosper is about to close on $50 million in funding, in a round that slashes its value 70 percent to $550 million, The Information reports .
That a steep decrease from the $1.9 billion valuation the second-largest online lender saw just last year. The Information reports people close to the matter as saying the company's new investor is Chinese and that although Prosper is struggling, it's attempting to get back onto a path toward financial stability.
"A sharp drop in the valuation of Prosper has nearly wiped out the value of the online lender’s common stock," the Information reports. "The company’s problems reflect the continuing struggles in the industry, as wary investors pull back from the platforms."\
Prosper is similar to most other online lenders because it makes money by taking a fee from lenders looking for access and then a percentage of each loan made. But the increasing scarcity of buyers and increasing pressure on the fintech space have had it scrambling for new ways to stay viable.
"Prosper in particular was reliant on a small number of large buyers such as BlackRock (NYSE: BLK). As one investor began backing out the rest followed, and the company’s revenue dropped," the Information reports. "Prosper’s revenue went from $204 million in 2015 to $136 million in 2016."
The company has also been downsizing as it looks for places to trim the fat, including closing an office in Salt Lake City earlier this year and laying off 30 percent of its employees.
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|From: Glenn Petersen||9/4/2017 7:17:40 AM|
|Alipay rolls out world’s first ‘Smile to Pay’ facial recognition system at KFC outlet in Hangzhou|
PUBLISHED : Friday, 01 September, 2017, 3:12pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 03 September, 2017, 4:40pm
Alipay today launched its facial recognition payment solution at KFC’s new KPRO restaurant in Hangzhou. SCMP Pictures (UNDATED HANDOUT)
Ant Financial, which operates the Alipay electronic payment platform used in Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall online shopping sites, has rolled out the world’s first commercial application of a payment system that identifies payers using facial-recognition technology.
At KPRO, a new KFC restaurant that serves salads, paninis and fresh juice instead of deep-fried chicken in Alibaba’s home base of Hangzhou, customers can authenticate their payments by having their faces scanned.
The “Smile to Pay” application takes just one to two seconds to recognise and identify a face, which follows the scan with a second verification through a mobile phone, according to Ant Financial. The technology is fully insured, and users of Alipay can disable or enable the feature any time.
A video provided by Ant Financial, which bought a stake in the China-based KFC and Pizza Hut fast food restaurants business last year from Yum! Brands for US$460 million along with Primavera Capital, shows customers being accurately identified, even though they were in disguise using make-up or wearing wigs.
“Combined with 3D cameras and likeness detection algorithm, ‘Smile to Pay’ can effectively block spoofing attempts using other people’s photos or video recordings,” said Chen Jidong, Ant Financial’s director of biometric identification technology.
The roll out of Ant Financial’s “Smile to Pay” function, powered by the Face ++ technology developed by Beijing start-up Megvii, underscores how China, with the world’s largest population and a headlong embrace of mobile internet technology, is becoming the latest testing ground for new applications and services.
China’s has been a front runner in both the developing and applying facial recognition technology for commercial use, a trend that’s been untouched by technology companies in the United States, due to tighter US laws governing the collection of biometric data. An airport in Nanyang city in Henan province has installed a check-in system that augments a boarding pass with a facial recognition system developed by Baidu, operator of China’s dominant internet search engine. Similar plans are afoot for the Beijing airport.
Alipay already has more than half the share of China’s US$5.5 trillion market for mobile payments, while Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall are the biggest e-commerce and online shopping platforms on the market. Alibaba is also the owner of the South China Morning Post.
Alibaba’s founder and chairman Jack Ma Yun demonstrated Ant Financial’s “Smile to Pay” function for German Chancellor Angela Merkel during the 2015 CEBIT exhibition in Hanover. Facial recognition is one of hottest technology trend in China.
Ant Financial’s facial recognition technology was licensed from Megvii. Other companies like Didi Chuxing, the dominant Chinese ride-sharing company, uses Face++ to verify the identities of its 1.35 million drivers, while Meitu uses it to enhance its photo-retouching features.
Megvii raised US$100 million from investors CCB International and Foxconn Technology during its last funding round in December, according to a report by Bloomberg.
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as:
Alipay launches world’s first smile-to-pay system
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|To: Sr K who wrote (83)||10/22/2017 10:21:10 PM|
|From: Glenn Petersen|
|Jack Ma stole it from Yahoo, Jerry Yang, and Marissa Meyer.|
Alipay was the subject of one of China’s most controversial corporate governance scandals, when in 2011 Mr Ma took it out of Alibaba and placed it under the direct control of himself and some associates. Yahoo, at the time a 40 per cent shareholder in Alibaba, was among the main protesters.
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|From: Sr K||10/26/2017 12:16:59 PM|
|Lending Tree (TREE) is up ~15% after reporting Q3.|
Adjusted earnings 1.17, compared to consensus .97.
|RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read|
|To: Kirk © who wrote (86)||12/11/2017 11:10:29 PM|
|From: Glenn Petersen|
|Probably a good call. Last week's reaction to the revised guidance was a bit excessive. Hopefully, they have their house in order now.|
LendingClub (LC) Stock Tanks 17.4% on Lower Q4 Guidance
December 11, 2017, 08:15:00 AM EDT By Zacks Equity Research, Zacks.com
Shares of LendingClub Corporation LC plunged 17.4% since its Investors Day conference last week. Investors turned bearish as the company lowered its fourth-quarter 2017 outlook within a month.
What's the New Q4 Guidance & Why was it Lowered?
LendingClub provided the details related to its new outlook in the Investors Day presentation. The company now expects fourth-quarter 2017 revenues, GAAP net income and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) to be nearly $3 million lower than what it guided in November.
LendingClub now projects net revenues to be in the range of $155-$160 million, down from previous outlook of $158-$163 million. Additionally, adjusted EBITDA and GAAP net loss are expected to be in the range of $16-$20 million (lower from $19-$23 million) and $10-$6 million (wider than prior loss estimate of $7-$3 million), respectively.
Further, LendingClub's 2017 revenues are projected to be approximately in the $573-$578 million range and adjusted EBITDA between $42 million and $46 million. Notably, the company is expected to report a net loss of $72-$68 on GAAP basis.
The main reason for reduced fourth-quarter outlook is related to the "timing impact" of holding residual from the company's recent securitization deal. While securitizations help LendingClub in originating more loans and thus earn additional origination and servicing fees, they expose the company to more risk as it has to retain part of securitization deals on the balance sheet.
LendingClub's 2018 guidance includes $25 million operating expenses related to investments in automotive refinancing platform and technology upgrades while not taking into consideration any legal costs.
Further, LendingClub's 2018 revenues are projected to be approximately in the $680-705 million range (up 18-22% year over year). This shows that the company is on track for its long-term revenue target of 15-20% rise year over year.
Adjusted EBITDA is anticipated between $42 million and $46 million (rising 87.5% at the mid-point). Notably, LendingClub is expected to report a net loss of $53-$38 on GAAP basis, reflecting a year-over-year improvement.
Road Ahead Expected to be Bumpy
LendingClub grew rapidly in the last few years. But the company's asset quality deteriorated as high-risk borrowers defaulted. This, in turn, led to some of the investors moving away from the company.
Nonetheless, LendingClub tightened its underwriting methods earlier this year. Therefore, the company was now expected to meet its financial targets. So, this reduced outlook made the investors apprehensive.
LendingClub's shares have plunged 33.1% so far this year against industry 's growth of 17.8%.
Currently, LendingClub carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
|RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read|


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Labels & Packaging
Agfa UK along with Amari Digital Supplies, Graphic Printing Technologies, and Delta Display are supporting the Jump4London world record attempt to produce the world's longest photograph.
Artist, designer and Inventor of the Year, Clare Newton, has had a dream of creating the world's longest photograph in time for the London Olympics and has been busy photographing thousands of children and adults from all walks of life across London, and will creatively combine the images to make a giant panoramic photograph over 1 kilometre in length, with everyone appearing to jump simultaneously.
The project has taken Clare around 18 months to put together so far, with around 5,000 ‘jumpers’, 87 events and 70,000 photographs. The final print will be a legacy for London to share. Here’s what she had to say about the project on the Agfa stand at the recent Sign & Digital UK 2012 show at the NEC.
The photo is going to be printed during April by The Creative Place on an Agfa Anapurna M2050 printer. The ExCel exhibition centre in London will host the first display of the Jump4London project in June 2012, which is where Guinness World Records will adjudicate and, hopefully, declare a new world record.
Want to get to know us better? Follow us on Twitter @GDWtweets
We'd love to get to know you and learn more about your business!
Got any news or PR? Email us at email@example.com

domain: news


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HTC launched its newest product to sail in 2013. This time, they introduced Android smartphone named HTC One.
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The good news for you smartphone users had Windows Phone OS. Angry Birds can now be downloaded for free.
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Of any high-end versions of each mobile phone brand, almost certainly will present its luxury models. No exception of Samsung’s latest smartphone, the Galaxy S4.
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The number of users increased four-fold compared to last year.
Website provider of free and paid storage service, Dropbox, today released an announcement stating that they have recorded a remarkable achievement by achieving 100 million users worldwide.
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As part of the of Geeked Week, Netflix have released the teaser trailer for the upcoming anime series Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.
The series synopsis is as follows:
The series tells a standalone, ten-episode story about a street kid trying to survive in Night City — a technology and body modification-obsessed city of the future. Having everything to lose, he stays alive by becoming an edgerunner — a mercenary outlaw also known as a cyberpunk.
The anime series is based within the universe of the video game Cyberpunk 2077. CD PROJEKT RED, the company behind Cyberpunk 2077, is producing the anime series with Rafal Jaki serving as executive producer and showrunner. Satoru Homma, Barotosz Sztybor and Saya Elder serve as producers. Studio Trigger, the famed Japan-based animation company, bring the world of Cyberpunk to life, with Hiroyuki Imaishi directing the series with creative director Hiromi Wakabayashi, character designer and animation director Yoh Yoshinari, and the screenplay adapted by Yoshiki Usa. The original score will be composed by Akira Yamaoka.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners will become available on Netflix this coming September 2022.


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Vehicle information specialists Autodata have become the victims of counterfeiting.
The company was recently contacted by a car manufacturer following a complaint made by a customer.
The customer was furious when he was faced with a repair bill for Â£3,500 for an engine re-build, after the garage who had recently serviced his vehicle neglected to inspect a vital component which lead to a catastrophic failure.
The garage was then discovered to have been using a counterfeit Autodata CD to acquire the vehicle information.
Autodata has said that it aims to make sure none of its data CDs fall into the wrong hands. But the fact remains that some workshops could potentially be using counterfeit CDs.
An Autodata spokesperson said: â€œWe are concerned that the general public may not be aware that a workshop could be using out of date and counterfeit information to service their vehicles. We are working hard to ensure that all the relevant agencies, repair standards, and enforcement bodies are aware of the safety and cost issues associated with using counterfeit software.
â€œIndependents must also be aware that if they are offered technical information from a suspicious or unlicensed source and it seems too good to be true then it probably is, as the Warwickshire workshop found out by having to cover the repair itself rather than risk potential court action against it.â€


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Toyota latest minivehicle was launched in Japan recently, boasting top level fuel efficiency for a gasoline-powered car.
The Pixis Epoch is the second passenger minivehicle to be launched by the automaker. Toyota said the car, which will be sold through 200 Toyota dealerships across Japan, manages nearly 19 miles to the liter — around 70 mpg.
The car’s fuel efficiency is helped in part by a new system for saving gas. Fitted as standard on all models of the Pixis Epoch, the eco-IDLE system shuts off the engine when the vehicle comes to a stop or else is when it is traveling at approximately 4 mph or less.
Not that this makes the Pixis Epoch a perfect green machine. This is still a gasoline-fueled car after all and its emission rate, though low compared to many other cars in its class, has been calculated at 77 grams of CO2 per kilometer traveled.
The car is well within Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism’s (MLIT) 2015 fuel efficiency standards. Under the MLIT’s approval system for low-emission vehicles, the car has been certified for emissions levels 75 percent lower than the ministry’s 2005 standard.
All this means buyers of the Pixis Epoch can claim a tax reduction since the Japanese government — like the Obama administration — operates a tax incentive program for environment-friendly vehicles.
Toyota has produced a number of environmentally friendly models in recent years, most notably the Prius range of hybrid vehicles. Last year’s tsunami had a serious impact on production, however, and the company was forced to postpone the rollout of a Prius-derivative known as the Prius v.


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Offers and discounts have tempted shoppers into stores giving the high street a sales growth in May, figures have shown.
Online spending helped businesses to shift stock left over during a weather-hot slump the previous month, meaning like-for-like sales were up 1.8% on the same period in 2012.
Consumers opted to invest in home improvement with sofas, flat-packs and bedroom furniture leading the way.
The figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) come after April saw sales fall at their fastest rate for a year.
More top news
Rain will clear east through this evening to leave a drier night for most, however showers will continue across some northern areas.
Speaking to ITV News, Dyke said everyone in the England camp was 'distraught and deeply upset ' at the team's early exit from Euro 2016.
ITV News travelled on a bus in the multicultural city to find out what people voted and why and discovered some concerns about the future.


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Shares of eBay surged 8.7% on Tuesday after The Wall Street Journal reported that Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has made a bid to acquire eBay’s marketplace business. ICE shares fell 7.4% on the news.
The companies aren’t in formal talks about a possible takeover and there’s no guarantee eBay will choose to pursue any deal, the Journal reported. The deal could value eBay at roughly $30 billion, according to the publication. EBay’s market cap stood at more than $28 billion as of Tuesday afternoon.
ICE, which owns the New York Stock Exchange, issued a statement late Tuesday confirming that it approached eBay about a possible deal.
“ICE approached eBay to explore a range of potential opportunities that might create value for the shareholders of both companies,” the company said. “EBay has not engaged in a meaningful way.”
An eBay spokesperson told CNBC in a statement: “The eBay Board is aligned and open to all value-enhancing alternatives. The board is highly engaged and has acted, and will continue to act, consistent with its focus on shareholder value.”
ICE has approached eBay about owning the company’s online marketplace, not its classifieds business, the Journal reported.
Earlier Tuesday, hedge fund Starboard Value called for eBay to sell its classifieds business, saying it would allow the company to focus on growing the marketplace business. EBay said it would consider Starboard’s “letter and perspectives” as it reviews future opportunities for “growth and value creation.”


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Publishers Weekly: “Potter a Mixed Blessing”
Jan 16, 2003
The June arrival of Order of the Phoenix has some publishers possibly rethinking release dates of upcoming books. Quotage:
In July 2000, the big titles coming out at the same time as Potter IV created a perfect storm that picked up publicity, production and sales of other books in its tempest — and resulted in diminished numbers for other titles in all three areas. This year the waves could crash even higher.
“It’s kind of like John Grisham,” said Bantam publisher Irwyn Applebaum. “Everyone starts juggling pub dates as if all those books were going to be clear #1 bestsellers, even though it’s a little bit of wishful thinking.” Penguin CEO David Shanks said simply, “A sure-fire number one bestseller will want to stay away.”


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DALLAS (KDAF) — It may still be summer, but it’s never a bad thing to prepare early for the winter.
Every year for more than 200 years, the Farmers’ Almanac has released its extended weather forecast for people to plan ahead and this year they are releasing their predictions a little early.
After two bitterly cold winters, how is Texas looking this year? According to a graphic they released, predictions say Texans can expect chilly weather with normal amounts of precipitation.
The 2023 Farmers’ Almanac will be available for purchase in stores starting Aug. 15.


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This Saturday is July 11, a date that’s always marked on the calendars of freebie-loving consumers. July 11, after all, is 7/11—or 7-Eleven Day—which is appropriately celebrated as a big day for the convenience store chain.
Over the years, 7-Eleven Day has gained a following as Free Slurpee Day, when each customer is welcomed to a complimentary Slurpee, any flavor goes. And the event has been getting bigger and bigger. In 2013, 7-Eleven began giving away larger Slurpees on the day, bumping up the freebie size from (yep) 7.11 ounces to the standard small size, 12 ounces.
Then, in 2014, 7-Eleven decided that 7-Eleven Day would be supersized into a whole freebie week, with free Slurpees followed by days in which cookies, Twinkies, Big Gulps, and such were given away.
Yet again, the 2015 edition of 7-Eleven Day is being stretched into eight days of giveaways. Unfortunately, this year’s version isn’t quite as generous. The promotions start like normal, with one free small Slurpee per customer on Saturday, July 11, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. There is no purchase required, and anyone and everyone can partake of the Slurpee giveaway, while supplies last.
Then, from Sunday, July 12, to Saturday, July 18, customers can receive up to $2 worth of food or drink daily, provided they meet two requirements: 1) they must be members of the 7Rewards program and download the mobile app to a device; and 2) they must be buying a 7-Eleven drink, such as a Slurpee, Big Gulp, or coffee, while grabbing their freebie.


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LONDON -- Telecommunications giant Vodafone Group PLC has a mantra: Be No. 1.
Or No. 2.
U.K.-based Vodafone, the world's second-biggest mobile carrier by subscribers, is trying to keep that position by having the most -- or second-most -- customers in each of its 26 countries.
"It's not really about being the leader," Chief Executive Vittorio Colao told analysts last month. Vodafone believes the top two players in telecom markets -- and it doesn't matter if they are first or second -- are able to differentiate themselves through superior networks and services. By focusing investments in these two areas, the leading operators can justify higher prices.
"The gap versus No. 3s is not only stable, but even increasing," Mr. Colao said, adding "it's about really creating a two-tier market."
Even after a $130 billion windfall from the 2014 sale of its Verizon Wireless stake, Vodafone has so far eschewed big, global expansion. Under Mr. Colao, a 55-year-old Italian reserve military officer who took over as CEO in 2008, the company left the consumer U.S. market and has plowed investment into Europe and the developing world instead.
Vodafone's biggest competitors are typically formerly state-owned fixed-line giants still catching up in the mobile age. It earned GBP41 billion ($50 billion) in revenue for the last full fiscal year and ranks below only China Mobile Ltd. in terms of global subscribers.
Over two years, Mr. Colao spent about $24 billion across his empire, which is concentrated in Europe, Africa and India, to expand high-speed mobile networks, the pillar of its marketing campaigns. Vodafone also spent about $20 billion in 2013 and 2014 to buy major cable operators in Germany and Spain, and it is expanding its wired cable and internet network so it can sell the telecom industry's Holy Grail: a "quad-play" package that offers mobile, landline telephone, cable and internet services on one bill.
The results so far are mixed: Vodafone said last month that its plan was paying off in parts of Europe, but proving much more expensive than anticipated in India.
Overall, Vodafone's organic revenue, which excludes foreign-exchange movement, grew 2.2% in the third quarter of 2016, outperforming the average 1.6% growth of major Europe-based telecom firms, according to Raymond James analyst Stephane Beyazian.
Leading the way over the past six months was Germany, with 2.3% organic growth, and Italy, at 1.7%. But Vodafone's organic revenue declined 2.7% in its home market of the U.K. -- where it is the No. 3 mobile operator behind BT Group PLC, which operates the EE brand, and Telefónica SA's O2. Mr. Colao blames the shortfall partly on billing problems and customer-service complaints related to a new computer system.
Even more costly has been defending its No. 2 status in India. New mobile carrier Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., funded by India's richest man, has offered free service for at least a month to get new customers. Vodafone wrote down the value of its India business by EUR5 billion ($5.3 billion) earlier this month, citing the competition.
"It is very hard to compete with someone who gives stuff for free," Mr. Colao said.
Vodafone was formed in Newbury, England, in 1984 and spun off from military and electronics conglomerate Racal Electronics Group in 1991. It was one of the world's first mobile-focused telecom companies, and obtained licenses in a hodgepodge of countries early in the cellphone era and via two big deals.
It merged with AirTouch Communications, a San Francisco-based mobile carrier with world-wide holdings, in 1999. The next year, it acquired Mannesmann AG, a German telecommunications business with European operations.
In 1999, Vodafone merged its U.S. mobile operations with those of Bell Atlantic Corp., with the latter renaming itself Verizon Communications Inc. They called their joint venture Verizon Wireless, with Verizon owning 55% and Vodafone the other 45%. Verizon Communications had long tried to buy out Vodafone's shares, but the two didn't reach an agreement until 2013. The sale closed in 2014.
Vodafone gave back $84 billion from the sale to shareholders -- the largest single return in modern corporate history. A chunk of the remainder went to pay taxes and reduce debt.
The rest of those funds helped bankroll Vodafone's two-year network-improvement program. The project, which mostly wrapped up this past spring, focused on expanding Vodafone's fourth-generation mobile network, or 4G, in Europe and both its fourth- and third-generation networks in emerging markets such as India.
For years, Vodafone and John Malone's Liberty Global PLC have publicly flirted with the idea of a combination. The two companies expect to complete a merger of their operations in the Netherlands later this year, creating a 50-50 joint venture. Speaking at a Morgan Stanley conference last month, Mr. Colao and Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said the Dutch tie-up wasn't necessarily indicative of future deals. But Mr. Colao kept the door open.
"We see the world the same way," Mr. Colao told investors, describing Mr. Fries. "Is this the first trial of something bigger? Not necessarily....But of course it helps to know each other."
Write to Stu Woo at email@example.com


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Behaviour Interactive shared some big news about Dead by Daylight this week by announcing that the game will be getting its mobile release in Spring 2020. A mobile release was announced midway through 2019 around the time that the game celebrated an anniversary, but there was no more specific release date at the time beyond sometime in 2020. The soon-to-be mobile game is currently up in the Google Play Store for people to pre-register so that they’re good to go whenever it’s released, and for those who will be playing on iOS devices, you can pre-register through the game’s site.
The developers shared their announcement with the community this week and redirected them again to the Dead by Daylight Mobile site in case they want to pre-register for the game. It’s probably a smart idea for those who are interested in the upcoming mobile release to go ahead and pre-register anyway since there are community rewards to be had if enough people sign up. Those rewards seen below include unique cosmetics for different Survivors and Killers as well as varying amounts of Iridescent Shards, the in-game currency used to purchase perks from the Shrine of Secrets or to buy some of the game’s original characters.
The rewards are looked behind 500K, 750K, and 1 million pre-registration milestones.
Behaviour Interactive also announced that it’d be working with NetEase Games, the company responsible for mobile games like Marvel Super War and Rules of Survival, to release the game in select Asia regions. Sign-ups from any region count towards the goals though, so everyone benefits from the pre-registrations.
“We officially started pre-registration last summer through our website, and with launch just around the corner, pre-registration is now open on the Google Play Store,” Behaviour Interactive said. “Regardless of region, all pre-registrations will count towards our Milestone Rewards, which will be distributed in-game at launch.”
Pre-registration for #DbDMobile is now open on Google Play in select regions. Check out our blog post for more information on pre-registering and earning the Milestone Rewards: https://t.co/mS4WuM3KY9 pic.twitter.com/vxuX6zPijC— Dead by Daylight Mobile (@DbDMobile) February 27, 2020
Dead by Daylight routinely gets new content through Chapters that introduce original characters and sometimes licensed ones, so expect to see that content released on the mobile version as well as the main platforms. The latest Chapter is called Chains of Hate and introduces something that the developers have wanted to have in the game for a long time.


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- Anheuser-Busch's global CEO Michel Doukeris discussed the impact of recent Bud Light backlash.
- The brand was criticized by conservatives last month for a promo with a transgender influencer.
- Doukeris said the drop in Bud Light sales represented only 1% of the company's global sales volume.
Anheuser-Busch's CEO Michel Doukeris briefly discussed the impact of Bud Light's promotion with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney last month, which was promptly met with backlash that led to a lag in Bud Light sales.
On the company's May earnings call, Doukeris said the beer brand's dip in sales in the three weeks following the onset of the backlash represented roughly 1% of the company's global sales volume during that time. He added "it is still too early to have a full view" of the impact of the promotion on Bud Light's beer sales.
The company beat Wall Street's expectations for its quarterly earnings, and the stock closed up over 3% on Thursday.
"This was one can, one influencer, one post, and not a campaign," Doukeris said, a point he reiterated twice on the call. He added that the beer can was not made for production or sale to the general public, and the promotion with Mulvaney was one post, rather than a formal campaign or advertisement.
The apparent backlash from some conservatives, which included a call to boycott Bud Light, was swift: On April 1, transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, who has more than 12 million followers across TikTok and Instagram, posted a video on Instagram featuring a custom beer can featuring her face that Bud Light's marketing team sent her.
Previously, the Wall Street Journal reported that Bud Light Sales dropped by 17% by mid-April, per data created by Bump Williams Consulting and analyzed by Nielsen.
Anheuser-Busch's wholesaler distributors have also dealt with some of the fallout and confusion from buyers who believed Bud Light was selling the cans featuring Mulvaney, according to the Journal. By April 22, Bud Light sales in US stores dropped 21% compared to the previous year, per the sales data analysis reported on by the Journal.
Anheuser-Busch and Dylan Mulvaney did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment ahead of publication.
To alleviate the impacts of the promotion on the brand and its sellers, Doukeris said on the earnings call the company is providing financial support to the brand's wholesalers. Doukeris said the company has also tripled its summer budget for the Bud Light brand in the US. Bud Light has also reportedly offered a free case of beer to every employee of its wholesale distributors.
Shortly after the backlash, Bud Light Vice President of Marketing Alissa Heinerscheid, and Daniel Blake, the vice president of marketing for Anheuser-Busch's mainstream brands, both took leaves of absence, the Journal reported. A spokesperson confirmed to Insider that Heinerscheid would be replaced with Todd Allen, the global vice president of Budweiser.
Two weeks after the backlash ensued, Anheuser-Busch's CEO of the North America, Brendan Whitworth, released a statement that said, "We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people. We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer."
In a TikTok posted last week, Mulvaney spoke about how she's been offline for a few weeks, and indirectly referred to the recent controversy, telling her followers, "I think it's okay to be frustrated with someone or confused, but what I'm struggling to understand is the need to dehumanize and to be cruel."


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What Should You Expect From a ‘Virtual House’
Investors may not be rushing headlong into buying physical hotels and offices right now, but in the virtual reality world, property deals are surging and attracting vast sums of real-life dollars.
Virtual Socialization Will Be Inevitable
Virtual environments and ecosystems are not new. Both ‘Eve Online’ and ‘Second Life’ virtual worlds, which were designed for adults, successfully launched back in 2003, and at their peak, attracted millions of users. Subscribers/ members built intricate economies inside both simulation games, and they rose to popularity when the real world was still very much grounded within real-life synergy. They have since declined in demand as the new crypto-based/ NFT newbies have been rapidly growing. Those two games back in 2003 were just a bit before their time.
In recent times, human intercommunication and socialization have shifted overwhelmingly virtual; wherever possible, people have moved their social and business connections and relationships to their smartphone or laptop. Now is the appropriate time to virtually socialize and interact via our devices rather than in person, as the pandemic has mostly driven us all online. These new habits and customs just might become permanent cultural shifts, changing what we consider normal behavior.
Is Digital Real Estate Investing Serious?
Unquestionably it is, and here are a few snapshot pieces of information that will prove exactly how serious it is:
- Decentraland, which is a metaverse, had a recent Initial Coin Offering (or ICO) and sold more than USD 24 million of MANA (which is the Decentraland currency — allowing users to buy and sell virtual land within this metaverse) in less than 60 seconds.
- Genesis City is a plot of virtual land designed and created by Decentraland. It is approximately the size of Washington, DC, and investors can buy portions of this land for outrageous amounts of Money. According to Bloomberg, even a simple 1,100 square foot plot of land can sell for as much as USD 200,000.
- Virtual real estate prices are just growing, yet that has not stopped or prevented investors from spending mind-blowing amounts of Money on them. Back in January, a plot of LAND in Decentraland went for around USD 2,500. Only months later, the price surged over USD 180,000 for the same size of virtual property.
Decentraland has formidable and exciting plans to expand and define all aspects of Genesis City and convert it into a virtual city center. The community of virtual landowners have already addressed mixed zoning and entertainment regions like ‘Vegas City’, — which is a designated area devoted purely to all forms of virtual gambling.
Authorized users will have the ability to go to a casino and gamble, watch a live music show or cabaret, attend a DIY workshop, shop with virtual friends, and even start an online business in the metaverse — all via a Decentraland web browser or Virtual Reality headset.
Virtual Real Estate: New Players and New Rules
Nowadays, most present-day excitement concerning virtual real estate and NFT speculation can be traced back to the confidence surrounding investing within ‘Second Life.’ One player back then in ‘Second Life’ world became famous for becoming the first player to achieve USD 1 million from an initial investment of just USD 10 — all earned from business dealings conducted solely inside the virtual world.
The key to virtual land prosperity is to learn the new investment rules. The old rules for physical investments are not relevant in the virtual world. The “location, location, location” mantra implies that vicinity and discernibility will govern value, but in the virtual world, players can instantaneously move to new locations (using game-map coordinates), so visibility matter less.
What signifies the virtual world is enticing humanity and drawing players within the metaverse to interact, invest, and return continuously. Within the virtual world, imagination, ingenuity, and excitement from interaction far outweigh budget and location.
Just How do you Buy Digital Real Estate
Exactly what is digital real estate, and how can you purchase it? Well, it is a real opportunity, it is a blank canvass to create whatever virtual home that you desire, and importantly, it is a real investment.
In the real estate real-world transaction, Money is exchanged for real property, and the transaction will involve financial institutions like a bank, conveyancing lawyers, and title companies. Similarly, virtual real estate is exchanged, normally for virtual currency — and usually in the form of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).
NFTs are distinct and have a limited or finite volume. NFT transactions are facilitated by blockchain technology, which is a digital ledger that is copied and distributed across a network of authorized nodes. Post-purchase, instead of house keys, you receive an encrypted password — and the freedom to develop your virtual land with the only constraint being your imagination.
The Value of Virtual Real Estate
The value of online real estate will rise as more people purchase digital art and other collectibles — and require a position to showcase them. Artists and designers are transforming to the virtual world to advertise and sell their digital artistic creations, as consumers spend significantly more time within the metaverse.
For a genuine virtual real estate investor, this means there will be value in owning virtual real estate within a well-trafficked digital space. Republic Realm, which has significantly invested its own funds to purchase over 20 parcels across a few metaverses, is currently in business discussions with real-life hospitality brands seeking to co-develop resorts on those virtual sites.
Purchasing virtual land today, within virtual worlds or metaverses, could feel like how those investors did — buying land in Long Island and Manhattan, or in Paris or London in the 1700s. There is extensive growth ahead, and time is right now to get a foot in on the ground floor.
Companies and Individuals can Money Investing in Digital Real Estate in the metaverse
There are no guarantees with investing, however digital real estate investing has proven to be a possible source of wealth generation for investors. There are currently several metaverses, each with its own cryptocurrency. But, essentially, they all operate in the same manner — with the distinction being a slightly different digital implementation.
Investors within the virtual economy learn quickly that it is an exciting time to engage digitally. The likelihood of fleeing to a new world to reinvent oneself will always be an allure — regardless of who we are and what we have become in the real world. Coupled with vivid and unusual graphics, entertainment, AI, and robotic simulations generating all facets of virtual life, it is natural to understand why metaverse organizations such as Decentraland are becoming popular.
Early adopters in virtual real estate — regardless of whether they are an organization or an individual — have the ability to enter the market where virtual home prices are so more affordable when compared to real world home and land markets. Like any early mover who has identified a fast-growing investment opportunity in the real world (think of cities such as Las Vegas), those investment pioneers who invest early — and keep hold of those investments for the long term will prevail.
Image supplied by Efe Kurnaz — Unsplash


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Mattel is exhibiting at Festival of Licensing, a month-long large-scale digital gathering that unites the global licensing industry to connect, learn, strike deals and do business on an international stage. The event takes place Oct. 6-29.
Register for free now!
“The Fisher-Price Toy Museum was inspired by the idea that, whether you were born in the 1950s, 1980s or 2000s, everyone has a memory of their favorite childhood toy, and many of those are from Fisher-Price,” says Chuck Scothon, senior vice president and global head, infant and preschool, Mattel. “The intent of this museum is to take visitors back to their unique childhood experiences, and give
In what is being dubbed the ultimate trip down memory lane for people of all ages, the grand opening of the Fisher-Price Toy Museum will be on October 16 where visitors to the official
will be able to rekindle their relationship with some of their favorite Fisher-Price toys through an interactive exhibition of images and videos.
At the museum, the legacy of Fisher-Price toys will be on full display. In honor of the brand’s anniversary year, the museum will feature more than 90 different exhibits that will be organized by decade, enabling visitors to easily locate the vintage toys from their childhood.
Specific exhibits include Snoopy Sniffer, which launched in 1938 and sits atop a fabricated slice of blueberry pie; the iconic Roller Skates, which were first introduced in 1983 and are showcased in a miniature roller skating rink complete with the wood paneled flooring and carpeted walls; and the Soothe & Glow Seahorse, which launched in 2008 and is displayed underwater in an aquarium setting.
Celebrating a 90-year milestone since its early founding in June 1930, the pioneering company was the first to use and term the phrase ‘Preschool Toys’ in 1934, the first to create licensed toys and one of the first companies to make coding available to preschool kids with the introduction of the Code-A-Pillar in 2016.
Accompanying the museum is a gift shop offering 16 products that celebrate the brand’s timeless toys. Gift shop items, which will be available in limited quantities, include a Doctor Doodle T-shirt, Space Blazer socks, shoelaces featuring the brand’s classic roller skates and a lunchbox with imagery of vintage Little People figures.
In 2020, during the global COVID pandemic, Fisher-Price released a special edition line of collectible action figures and Little People Community Champions called the #ThankYouHeroes where all net proceeds go to charities supporting COVID-19 efforts.
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NEW YORK | The Dow Jones industrial average Tuesday closed above 12,000 for the first time in 2½ years — yet another sign that the economy is extending its recovery from the recession.
According to preliminary calculations, the Dow, which fell to a low of 6,547 in March 2009, soared 148 points, or 1.3 percent, to 12,040.16.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 also reached a milestone Tuesday. It closed at 1,307.59, its first close above 1,300 since August 2008. The Nasdaq rose 51, or 1.9 percent, to 2,751.19.
Investors found plenty of reasons to send stocks sharply higher. Earnings reports from companies including Pfizer, UPS and Archer Daniels Midland were better than expected.
And manufacturing had another good month in January.
The Institute of Supply Management said Tuesday that manufacturing activity expanded in January at its fastest pace in nearly seven years. Increased spending by businesses and consumers helped push the index higher, the company said.
“This is a good indicator that businesses have come out of the gate strongly in 2011,” said Burt White, chief investment officer for LPL Financial. “We are seeing businesses spend again and this is exactly what we needed to see for this economy to move forward.”
The better economic data helped push stocks broadly higher. Materials companies rose 2.4 percent, the largest gain of any group.
Also, Americans gave automakers a confidence boost in January. They bought more cars and trucks and showed a still-fragile industry that they were ready to replace their clunkers in 2011.
Sales were expected to total about 800,000 for the month. That’s still below prerecession levels of 1 million or more, but better than last January’s sales of 698,000.
Nearly all big car companies reported double-digit gains for the month, a sign that the slow recovery in U.S. auto sales that began last year remains on track. While the recovery could falter if turmoil in the Middle East pushed up gas prices or unemployment stays high, the industry was happy with what it saw last month.
“January signals a good start to the year for us, for the industry, and we think it’s a good sign for the overall U.S. economy,” said Don Johnson, vice president of U.S. sales for General Motors Co.
Car buyers were shopping for just about everything. Sales of recently redesigned SUVS such as the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Ford Explorer were strong. People also snapped up small cars such as the Nissan Versa and Honda Fit.


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No doubt that mobile devices are very convenient; but sometimes, we need the desktop computing environment, especially when it comes to interacting with productivity tools and entertainment contents that are best viewed on a larger monitor. So, what if we can have a desktop-like experience with our smartphone? Isn’t it sounds great?
Earlier this year, Samsung introduced ‘Samsung DeX’ which enables users to enjoy a desktop-like environment while still harnessing the power of Samsung’s cutting-edge mobile experience through the Galaxy S8, S8+, and Note8.
Last month, Samsung had announced that it was working on an app known as ‘Linux on Galaxy’ that will allow users of the Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+, and Galaxy Note 8 smartphones to run a full-fledged Linux operating system via the Samsung DeX platform.
Promising to bring the full Linux PC experience to your mobile device, the “Linux on Galaxy” concept relies on the Samsung DeX dock station, that allows you to plug the device to an external display, power, Ethernet, and USB devices.
“Installed as an app, ‘Linux on Galaxy’ gives smartphones the capability to run multiple operating systems, enabling developers to work with their preferred Linux-based distributions on their mobile devices,” Samsung said. “Whenever they need to use a function that is not available on the smartphone OS, users can simply switch to the app and run any program they need to in a Linux OS environment,” the company added.
The company has now released a video showing a device being put on DeX using the “Linux on Galaxy” app to launch a Linux distro.
Watch the video below:
As seen in the video, all you have to do is to connect your phone to DeX and double-click the “Linux on Galaxy” icon on the desktop to run a full-fledged Linux distro straight from your Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
Until now, Galaxy S8, S8+, and Note8 users have been able to run Android apps in this desktop environment using DeX, but now the users will be able to convert their device into a GNU/Linux PC.
To get more information about the tool, users can sign for Samsung’s email notification service.


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A new technology for fire-retarding polyisocyanurate (PIR) sandwich panels will be launched by Huntsman at this year’s UTECH Europe exhibition and conference.
Using the trademark Inspire, the new technology will differentiate from competitor products by not requiring an adhesive layer between the foam and the steel facings. Inspire PIR technology is characterized by an easy foam processing and a competitive density - both in line with European market requirements.
Nick Webster, European Vice President for Huntsman’s Polyurethanes division said: - PIR sandwich panels currently have a small market share in the European sandwich panel market, but we expect this technology will grow rapidly in the coming years, driven by new fire legislation and insurance company requirements.
He added: - New Inspire PIR technology places Huntsman in an excellent position to take a significant share of this more specialised and higher quality panel business.”
Huntsman will offer three different Inspire PIR technology configurations with low, medium and high NCO-index, to suit customer needs.
PIR foam has many of the traditional advantages of polyurethane foam, such as light weight, excellent thermal conductivity and moisture resistance, but with superior fire properties. PIR production involves a higher proportion of MDI, resulting in a thermally more stable product. Until the development of Inspire technology, PIR adhesion to steel was more problematic than for polyurethane, hence the former need for an extra adhesive layer.
A paper on Inspire PIR entitled “New Inspire adhesive-free PIR technology for sandwich panels” and written by Alexander Abati, Domenico Stragapede, Josep Gimeno and Kristof Dedecker will be presented by Huntsman at the UTECH Europe conference.
In addition to Inspire PIR, Huntsman’s Polyurethanes division will be showcasing an extensive range of products and services for insulation, ACE, footwear, automotive, bedding and furniture and engineered wood products.
Huntsman to launch adhesive-free polyisocyanurate technology


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THEY were released as a symbol of a new beginning.
Traders at the once ridiculed Park Parade shopping centre, in Leigh Park, released a dozen white doves on Saturday at the grand opening of six new shops.
The shopping district hit the headlines when a survey revealed that Leigh Park had the highest level of empty shops in the country.
But, since the report was carried out last year the number of empty shops has dropped from 36.4 per cent to just 19 per cent.
Funeral director Paul Bigwood is one of the traders who had the confidence to open a new business in Park Parade.
Along with the other members of the new Leigh Park Traders’ Association he wants to rebrand Park Parade and neighbouring Greywell Precinct.
He said: ‘This whole area used to be part of the Staunton country estate so we thought the perfect name would be the Staunton Shopping Centre.
‘It will give the whole area a lift. This place needs a new image and a rebranding.
‘We will have the same shopkeepers, and hopefully more, but it will be a new start to encourage people to shop here.
‘It will be good for the area and we released the doves to symbolise that.’
A new landlord has encouraged new business to the area which Councillor Mike Fairhurst, who’s responsible for economic issues at Havant Borough Council, said he was delighted to see.
‘The council is always keen to hear the views and suggestions of residents and business communities about making changes and improvements to their area,’ he said.
‘I am delighted that the traders of the shopping area in the centre of Leigh Park want to move forward and regenerate their area, and fully support what they are trying to do.
‘The council will provide whatever advice and assistance it can to help them achieve this.
‘I am pleased with results that see new shop units opening and hope this is an upward trend encouraging further growth for the local economy.’


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11 days ago, Elon Musk said that Tesla’s highly anticipated 8.1 software update will come in “about 10 days”. Today, he updated the ETA to next “Tuesday-Wednesday”, but owners don’t have their hopes up since the update has been delayed on several occasions since last December.
What is still unclear is if the update will also bring the second generation Autopilot to feature parity with the first generation Autopilot or if it will only be UI updates for the entire fleet.
In the past, the CEO has linked the 8.1 update with Autopilot 2.0 improvements to bring the system to parity with the first generation, but they have been pushing those updates in iterations of 8.0.
The latest update still has speed limit restrictions and the overall quality is not yet to parity with Autopilot 1.0.
We asked Musk to clarify if 8.1 next week will have feature parity, but we don’t have an answer yet:
Musk said before that 8.1 was delayed due to the fact that the team was working on improving Autopilot 2.0 software and therefore, which ever comes first (8.1 or Autopilot 2.0 feature parity), the other one shouldn’t be far behind.
Beyond Autopilot and UI improvements, 8.1 was also associated with Tesla’s new mobile app overhaul, but they ended up releasing it last month before 8.1 was ready.
The update 8.1 is also expected to upgrade Tesla’s operating system with the new Linux kernel and introduce several UI improvements, especially a
better usable internet browser has been promised. As we recently reported, less than 30% of Tesla drivers use their in-car internet browser on a monthly basis.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.


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Susan Walsh, AP
The U.S. government warned mortgage lenders to clean up misleading advertisements Monday, according to NBC News.
The crackdown came after two agencies, the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, reviewed about 800 advertisements for mortgage-related loans.
The review discovered four problems with the advertisements, which were found on the Internet, in newspapers and in mailers. One was that they misrepresented their connection with the government by having official-looking seals. These seals cause consumers to believe they were affiliated with the government.
Some had false information about interest rates, showing lower rates than were actually offered.
Others presented images that misrepresented the amount of cash or credit available.
Finally, companies made statements regarding reverse mortgages that made it seem like consumers wouldn't have to pay on the product, when in actuality they had monthly or other periodic tax or insurance payments.
"Misrepresentations in advertising for mortgage products pose a significant risk of harm to consumers because they can confuse and mislead consumers when they are making one of the biggest transactions of their lives,” said Kent Marcus, assistant director for enforcement at the CFPB to NBC News.
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Discount grocer Aldi has confirmed plans to build two more stores in Northeast Ohio this year.
Kevin McClure, director of real estate for Aldi's Hinckley division, said the German grocery chain will open new stores this year in Garfield Heights and Cleveland, adding to the 56 stores already in operation across northern Ohio.
"Now we're really going to start to focus on the Cleveland metropolitan market," McClure said. "We have big plans for the area."
The Cleveland store will be first.
McClure said Aldi has taken possession of 17,000 square feet in a former Tops Market at 6711 Broadway Ave. He said remodeling work there is now under way and is on track for a June opening.
The second store is at the new Bridgeview Crossing development in Garfield Heights. That store will measure 16,500 square feet and could open by October, McClure said.
Aldi, which stands for "Albrecht Discount," operates about 900 stores in 27 states and 8,100 stores worldwide.
The company opened stores last fall in Lakewood, Seven Hills, Fairlawn and North Canton.
If the Garfield Heights Aldi opens as scheduled, it could be the first merchant in operation at Bridgeview, the 500,000-square-foot new project still under construction near Interstate 480 and Transportation Boulevard. The center is scheduled for completion in March 2009.
Aldi is not the only retailer destined for Bridgeview Crossing. Dave Mrachko, head of leasing for Snider-Cannata Interests, the local developer handling Bridgeview, said five more tenants have agreed to open at the plaza: Third Federal Savings & Loan, Verizon, Shoe Carnival, Dots and a store featuring Sauder furniture.
These are in addition to the plaza's three previously announced anchors: Target, Lowe's and JCPenney.