A senior J.P.Morgan official wrote in a recent note to clients that Bitcoin is a risky investment and may be too dangerous to function as a viable currency. John Normand, JPM’s chief global FX strategist, wrote that, “As a medium of exchange, unit of account...
For the first time, smartphone sales worldwide exceeded those for regular phone devices last year, according to new research from Gartner. Out of the 1.8 billion phones sold in 2013, 968 million of them were smartphones. This represents a 3.5 percent increase from 2012 levels,...
The U.S. Commerce Department reported this week that January retail sales unexpectedly fell compared with December as automobile sales slipped. Sales were down 0.4 percent, Reuters reported on Feb. 13. Estimates for January called for a 0.2 percent increase in retail sales. The Commerce Department...
04 March 2014 The source code for Mt. Gox, the troubled virtual-currency exchange, has been leaked online by an anonymous hacker. Additionally, the person also disclosed to TechCrunch that he or she stole 20GB worth of customer information, including allegedly passport and other personal identification data. The...
04 March 2014 One of Citigroup’s banking affiliates, Banamex USA, is being hit by twin inquires related to fraud and money-laundering regulation compliance. Banamex, which provides banking services to communities in the United States and Mexico, recently revealed in SEC filings that it had been...
06 March 2014 Merchants in California, Texas and Florida reportedly have filed lawsuits to challenge laws that prevent them from imposing extra charges on credit card purchases. Credit card transactions tend to cost merchants more to process than other payment types. Under network rules, merchants...
MasterCard, Visa and PayPal all reportedly voluntarily have agreed to block payments to non-UK-licensed gambling operators in anticipation of proposed changes to a UK gambling bill that would set an online gambling tax. Reports indicate that the proposed Gaming Duty rate of 15% would lead...
By Gloria Colgan, Managing Director, Market Platform Dynamics (@gkcolgan) Ah, the challenges of commercial prepaid. When JPMorgan Chase recently announced the potential sale of its government and commercial prepaid card business, it made big headlines. Chase has a massive portfolio from a prepaid perspective –...
Alibaba, the Chinese eCommerce conglomerate, has banned the sale of Bitcoin on its Taobao Marketplace online platform. Bloomberg News reported that Bitcoin sales and other cryptocurrencies will be restricted beginning on Jan. 14. Mining hardware and software will also be barred from Taobao. An Alibaba...
