Merchant Risk Council 2009 e-Commerce Conference

Merchant Risk Council Unveils Agenda for 2009 e-Commerce Conference

(Seattle, WA—December 9, 2008) The Merchant Risk Council (MRC) is pleased to announce the agenda for its 7th Annual e-Commerce Payments and Risk Conference at the Wynn Las Vegas Resort on March 10-12, 2009. The conference unites the world’s top multi-channel and Internet merchants, alternative payment providers, credit card companies, risk management providers, law enforcement agencies and various consultants and educators.

The primary themes of the 2009 conference are: Fighting New Patterns of Fraud and Cybercrime; Emerging Risk Management Trends; and Global Online Payment Strategies.

“We have assembled an all-star group of speakers and the most comprehensive agenda in addressing the pressing concerns for online merchants,” said MRC Board Chairman, Tom Sullivan, Expedia, Inc. “This conference lineup expands well beyond the traditional topics of fraud and lost revenue.” Sullivan adds, “As the issues of global electronic commerce are becoming more complex, the MRC Annual Conference is evolving to address these emerging issues.”

The general conference, sponsored by Chase Paymentech, contains 26 unique sessions, including:

• - A Community-based Approach to Fraud Management
• - Criminal Diversification: A Look at the Emerging Strategies of Cybercrime
• - Geolocation as a Risk Management Tool
• - Global Risk Management Trends and Solutions
• - Internet Bank Payments Coming of Age
• - Managing Risk to Maximize Revenue
• - Optimizing Automation to Increase Fraud Team Productivity
• - Payments as a Business Strategy
• - PCI Security Standards Council
• - Understanding the Dynamics of Chinese and Asian Markets
• - The Value of Social Media: Becoming the Conversation Architects
• - A Window into Fraud: Visualizing Evolving and Emerging Patterns

Travelocity.com founder Terry Jones will be delivering the opening keynote speech focusing on the business of innovation. Terry will share his unique perspectives on how companies can cultivate new ideals, as well as nurture the organizational structures, funding policies and team members required for success.

The conference’s closing keynote will be delivered by Dateline NBC correspondent Chris Hansen. The award-winning investigative reporter and host of the long-running ‘To Catch a Predator’ series will share his findings on the rapidly maturing underworld of cybercrime.

For the full conference agenda, registration or exhibition information, please visit the MRC website at www.merchantriskcouncil.org.

About the Merchant Risk Council

The Merchant Risk Council (MRC) is a merchant-led trade association focused on electronic commerce risk and payments globally. The MRC leads industry networking, education and advocacy programs to make electronic commerce more efficient, safe and profitable.

Today, with over 7,500 members, the MRC is the leading trade association for managing payments, preventing online fraud and promoting secure e-Commerce. The MRC is dedicated to working with e-Commerce and multi-channel merchants, credit card issuers, credit card companies, risk management providers, and law enforcement to make the Internet a safer and more profitable place to do business.

The MRC Board of Directors and Advisors includes: Expedia, Inc., Adobe Systems, Inc., Neiman Marcus Direct, Apple, BestBuy.com, Bill Me Later, Blizzard Entertainment, Chase Paymentech, CyberSource Corporation, Dell, Inc., Discover Network, 41st Parameter, Gap, Inc. Direct, iovation, Microsoft, Trustwave, and Visa, Inc.

The MRC is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

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Payments, Software and PCI

Digital Transaction News posted an interesting article regarding Payment Application data-security standard or PA-DSS and it's affect on software vendors in the payments industry.   Sure, it can cost a lot to get PCI certified, but money is secondary, the primary focus is on the security of the application.   It will be interesting to watch the effect PA-DSS has on the payments industry over the course of the next 7 months...

"The steady march toward more secure payment-processing software is likely to force many—possibly thousands—of small software vendors out of the market of serving merchants and card processors. These vendors will find it too expensive to upgrade their existing point-of-sale and related applications to meet specifications set forth in the new Payment Application data-security standard, or PA-DSS, according David Taylor, founder of the Stamford, Conn.-based PCI Knowledge Base consulting firm.

Taylor held a Webinar on Wednesday about the impact of PA-DSS on vendors, merchants, and the payments market in general. PA-DSS is the name of Visa Inc.’s former Payment Application Best Practices (PABP), a set of guidelines for protecting data that flow through software in POS terminals and other card-processing settings. The PCI Security Standards Council adopted PABP in October, renaming the guidelines PA-DSS and applying them to the other major card networks—MasterCard Inc., Discover Financial Services, American Express Co., and JCB. The Wakefield, Mass.-based PCI Council administers the Payment Card Industry data-security standard, or PCI, the overarching set of rules for securing credit and debit card data.

Merchant acquirers must ensure by July 1, 2010 that their merchants and third-party processors are using only applications that meet PA-DSS pecifications. That deadline is one reason vendors are furiously developing new applications or trying to fortify existing versions."  
continue reading at Digital Transaction News

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CheckFree Not HackFree 2

Digging Deeper Into the CheckFree Attack

Last week I featured an article from Brian Krebs of the Washington Post regarding Fiserv's CheckFree website being hacked or at the very least "webjacked".   "CheckFree Not HackFree!"

Yesterday, Mr. Krebs took a closer look  at the attack which experts are saying will become "more common" in 2009,   Here's a snippet...

The hijacking of the nation's largest e-bill payment system this week offers a glimpse of an attack that experts say is likely to become more common in 2009.

Atlanta based CheckFree acknowledged Wednesday that hackers had, for several hours, redirected visitors to its customer login page to a Web site in Ukraine that tried to install password-stealing software.

While this attack garnered few headlines, there are clues that suggest it may have affected a large number of people. CheckFree claims that more than 24 million people use its services. Avivah Litan, a fraud analyst with Gartner Inc., said CheckFree controls between 70 to 80 percent of the U.S. online bill pay market. Among the 330 kinds of bills consumers can pay through CheckFree are military credit accounts, utility bills, insurance payments, mortgage and loan payments.  (continue reading)

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Top 10 Risks to Banks in 2009

In an article written by Linda McGlasson, the Managing Editor of Bank Info Security, she takes a look at the 10 Greatest Risks to Banks in 2009. 

1. ATM Network Fraud

According to Paul Kocher, president and chief scientist of Cryptography Research Institute, the number one area that institutions will see fraud growing over the next year is in ATM networks.

"When the criminal gets access to magnetic stripe data and associated PIN values, they are then able to create cards, and basically then it's a license to print money," Kocher explains.

Another problem for institutions is that their ability to perform risk management is significantly less on an ATM network than online transactions. "This is because the ATM delivers the goods to the consumer immediately to them, which is exactly what the fraudsters want -- the cash, rather than a large ticket item they have to then fence or resell," he concludes.

Kocher predicts that until U.S. financial institutions and credit card companies roll out either a contact or contactless-based smart card infrastructure, there won't be a great reduction in the amount of fraud being perpetrated against U.S. consumers. "Once they decide to do this, it will cause a great reduction in the amount of fraud, because we've seen it happen in Europe," says Kocher.  (continue reading) 

Here's the rest of the top five according to BIS:

2. Check Fraud
3. Laser-Guided Precision Strikes
4. Phishing
5. Check Image Fraud

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Post CyberMonday Posts 9% Increase

Holiday E-Commerce Season Sales Finally Match Last Year as Two Workdays This Past Week Each Surpass $800 Million in Online Spending

Sales Since Cyber Monday Up 9 Percent Versus Year Ago

RESTON, Va., comScore (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported its tracking of holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 35 days of the November - December 2008 holiday season. For the holiday season through December 5, $14.92 billion has been spent online, essentially the same level compared to the corresponding days last year.

For the five days beginning with December 1 (Cyber Monday), the kick-off to the heaviest part of the online shopping season, sales totaled $3.74 billion, up 9 percent versus year ago. Two individual days in the past week achieved more than $800 million in online spending: Monday, December 1 ("Cyber Monday") with $846 million, and Tuesday, December 2 with $823 million.

For more details,  including figures and top performing retail categories click here.

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Parsing Data in Transit - Trustwave Warning

Trustwave announces the release of its updated forensics white paper, which examines 443 cases of cardholder data compromise investigated by Trustwave since 2001.  In the seven years Trustwave has been conducting credit card compromise investigations, it’s found businesses have made progress in protecting cardholder data, due to the very prescriptive and holistic Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). While fewer and fewer compromise investigations by Trustwave find the storage of cardholder data, theft of credit card data continues to make headlines every week.

This white paper outlines a new technique –parsing data in transit— that Trustwave has found during its investigations of credit card compromise. 

What’s most unsettling about this trend is that a merchant can use a payment application or Point-of-Sale (POS) terminal that is compliant with the Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS) or Visa’s Payment Application Best Practice (PABP) but if they are not 100% compliant with the PCI DSS, they can still fall victim to this technique.

Additionally, Trustwave has found that smaller merchants continue to make up the largest group of merchants that get compromised. Most of these smaller merchants don’t have an in-house IT staff and therefore rely on third parties to make sure they’re compliant. These third parties often don’t have skilled security experts that can confidently and accurately secure a merchant environment to be in compliance with the PCI DSS. While these smaller merchants don’t make the media headlines, they compromise nearly 99% of all global merchants.

For more information about the white paper, go to https://www.trustwave.com/whitePapers.php .

Source: Company press release.

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Credit Card Rewards...and Service

Aite Group, LLC Report #200812082

A new report from Aite Group, LLC provides insight into the demographics and attitudes of consumers who choose credit cards based on rewards programs, and sheds light on the other factors that drive consumers to select one card over another. It also outlines ways in which card issuers can best compete for the use of their card above others in rewards card users' wallets.

According to Visa, rewards cards now account for more than half of all credit cards, and, even more importantly, roughly eight of every 10 dollars spent on a credit card. Consumers rank rewards as the number two reason for applying for a specific card, behind no annual fees and ahead of low interest rates, according to Aite Group's January 2008 survey of 422 cardholders. As the number of cards in a consumer's wallet grows, so does the importance of rewards programs in influencing the cardholder's choice of cards; consumers don't stop using their other cards after getting a new rewards card. Among the ways to increase the use of a specific rewards card, issuers should consider expanding the range of goods and services that earn premium rewards.

"It is clear that most rewards cardholders possess multiple rewards cards," says Ron Shevlin, senior analyst with Aite Group and author of this report. "As issuers look to one-up each other with ever-expanding rewards, Aite Group believes that there's an opportunity for issuers to differentiate themselves by creating a rewards hub that enables cardholders to aggregate and integrate programs."

This 14-page Impact Note contains 15 figures. Clients of Aite Group's Retail Banking service can download the report by clicking on the icon to the right.

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Italian eCommerce Grows 20%

According to the recent survey of eCommerce Observatory B2c Netcomm – School of Management at the Politecnico di Milano Italian e-commerce has grown this year by 20%, which should surpass earnings of 6 billion euros by the end of the year. The main profit comes from tourism, clothing with its famous brand names such as Armani, Valentino, Gucci, Prada and others. Sale of food and wines has also brought some income.

Overall, though, e-commerce in Italy makes up less than 1% of all sales, much lower than other countries that register 3–10%. The data on what products are sold also highlights a big contradiction: though in traditional channels for products (wine & food, products for the home, electronics, music, and books) present about 80% of all acquisitions, on-line they don’t even reach 30%, with food products and household items making up barely 1% of on-line sales. It is a trend that is very different from that of other countries, where the rate of on-line food and wine sales vary from 7-14%. Without counting, however, the fact that they already begin with higher absolute numbers, in respect to great Britain, which is the European country that is most familiar with this mode of commerce, Italy has less than a quarter of the users, and with an average spending of 900 euros per person, less than one third of that spent by British citizens, reports WineNews.

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Loda Vodaphone with PayPal

According to various news accounts, Vodafone is now giving its prepaid mobile customers the ability to recharge their credit from their handsets using PayPal. The service provider claims it’s a first for Australia.  Vodafone customers can register for a PayPal account online and select from either direct debit or credit card payment.

Once the PayPal account is activated, they can recharge their prepaid cap or extras pack directly from their handset via the Vodafone live! mobile content portal, according to Vodafone.

The PayPal payment engine authenticates the customer’s identity with a unique user name and password.

At the completion of the transaction, the customer receives a recharge PIN via SMS or email, with the prepaid credit redeemed with a free call to 1555, the carrier said.

Online Bill Payment Behavior Studied

Consumer Online Bill Payment Behavior Revealed in New Study 

In an Uncertain Economy Consumers are Taking Advantage of Online Financial Transaction Tools to More Carefully Manage Their Money

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Dec 08, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- In an effort to retain some financial control in uncertain economic times, consumers are using tools to stay on top of bill payments. Billeo, Inc., the company that gives consumers unprecedented choice, control and convenience when paying bills online, conducted a 2008 customer behavior study focusing on online bill payment trends. The results show that consumers are utilizing free online tools to track, manage and organize their transactions. Three quarters of those who pay bills and shop online save electronic receipts of their transactions and identified ease of "tracking online purchases and payments" as a top motivator.

"The most important thing we glean from this study is that a growing number of consumers are not only more comfortable doing a variety of transactions online, but they prefer it," said Murali Subbarao, founder & CEO of Billeo, Inc. "We believe that the new economic situation will make them more savvy about how and when they spend their money and how they manage and store their online shopping and bill payment information. In uncertain times, they have the ability to exercise more control over how and when they pay bills, as well as how they track and evaluate expenses. To stay in control, consumers simply need to have some very basic online tools."

Billeo's survey revealed that more than half of people who transact online never pay late fees. The study found that more than 31 percent of those who transact online are baby boomers, and more than 58 percent are over the age of 45. The study also showed that more than 56 percent of those who transact online have attended college with more than half acquiring a graduate degree. In terms of credit cards, 90 percent have credit cards and 47 percent carry no debt on their cards.

"Currently, more than two-thirds of online consumers pay at least one of their monthly bills with a credit or debit card. As the growth rate for non-card based online bill payment slows, Aite Group believes that banks will find their highest rate of growth in online bill pay from card-based payers," said Ron Shevlin, Senior Analyst for Aite Group. "There is an opportunity for banks and billers to acquire an attractive set of consumers - consumers that are relatively affluent, are a low credit risk and actively engaged and loyal to the firms with which they do business."

In other research, Billeo found that credit card bills are the most popular bill paid online by consumers in terms of number of bills paid. Other categories in order of number of bills paid online were: Utilities, Telephone, Cable/Satellite Television, Wireless, and Insurance. In terms of average transaction amount, credit card bills were the highest with $602 per bill. Other categories in order of transaction amount include: Insurance (with $319), Utilities (with $217), Cable/Satellite Television (with $162), Wireless (with $159) and Telephone (with $143).

Splendid Search, a tool developed by Billeo to automatically save and categorize electronic copies of bill payment and shopping receipts, is available now to consumers. Splendid Search allows the search of financial transaction records by the retail store or company name, amount paid, credit card used, or even by date. Whether you want to save all of the records around the online booking of an airline ticket, hotel or car, are looking at all online transactions for a month, want to print a receipt for a rebate or in-store return, or want to file a warranty claim, Billeo automatically saves the full receipt, categorizes it and allows you to locate the right record in seconds. It takes all the work, frustration and clutter out of paying bills and shopping online.

Source: Press Release

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Just Another Mega Monday

Online Shopping: Mega Monday Set To Be Busiest Day Of The Year For Web Retail Market | Business | Sky News

Online retailers are hoping today will be a 'Mega Monday' as experts say it will be the year's busiest online shopping day.  The first Monday in December is usually the busiest for online sales. More than two million internet purchases are expected to take place today, with the hour between 1pm and 2pm the peak time for trading.

The commercial director of Visa Europe says buyers will turn to the web after failing to find what they wanted in the shops over the weekend.  Steve Perry also predicted that savvy shoppers would look to the internet for a better deal on an item they had already viewed in store.

Martin Talbot, marketing director of online retailer Play.com, told Sky News said: "Last year was an historic high for us. But this year we are already breaking all the records.

"At peak periods today we expect to take over 800 orders per minute. By ten o'clock this morning our sales were up by seventy per cent on the same day last year."  He added: "Now more than ever customers are looking for value and convenience. Because of the recession people are becoming more selective andmore demanding about what they want."  "The average Brit is planning to spend £23 per gift, compared to £28 in 2007."

Figures from electronic retail industry body IMRG suggest that 77% of people plan to do at least half their shopping online - up from 56% last year.

They predict overall online spending in the run up to Christmas will top £13bn.

In other news,  debit card usage is clearly rising. 

In the four weeks from November 6 to December 3, the early part of the Christmas shopping season, total spending in the UK on Visa debit cards increased by 7%, with the number of transactions increasing to just over 206 million.

Visa debit card usage increased 29% for online purchases, compared with the same period in 2007, accounting for more than 15% of all Visa debit card spending.

Dr Perry said: "We expect the rise of online consumer shopping to continue. In the last week alone, online spending with a Visa debit card increased by 20% on the previous week, amounting to nearly £600 million.

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Online Banking Passwords Stolen by Fake Firefox Plug-in

According to "The Paypers" a fake Firefox plug-in targets data exchanges between online banking and money transfer sites here, and abroad in Australia and Europe.  

Romanian anti-virus company BitDefender warns online banking users that a Trojan virus posing as a plugin for the popular web browser Mozilla Firefox is currently targeting computers which are already infected with other strains of malware.

ChromeInject-A, the Trojan in question, sits in the Firefox plugin folder and is activated every time users start Firefox. It targets data exchanges between infected computers and a series of pre-defined online banking and money transfer sites in Europe, the US and Australia. Once the sensitive login information is acquired, it is forwarded to a rogue server in Russia. BitDefender reports that while incidents involving the Trojan posing as Firefox plugin have so far been rare, the virus can cause “very high” levels of damage once it infected a vulnerable computer.

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Week in Review

• BioPay Launches Prepaid Debit Card Program
• Discover - Morgan Stanley Had Secret Talks with Visa/MC...
• More on Antitrust and Visa/MC...
• Discounts Pushed Sales on Cyber Monday
• Orange Money Launched in Ivory Coast
• Worst In 3 Decades - November Retail Sales
• Prepaid Debit with Money Remittance Function
• Is Online PIN Debit For Real This Time Around?
• PIN Debit on the Web
• CheckFree Not HackFree
• Cogito Ergosum...
• Will eBay Pay Later for Bill Me Later Acquisition?...
• Major Credit Card Hack Starting?
• 2nd Heaviest Online Spending Day on Record
• Money Transfer Survey from Upaid
• Cyber Holiday Pulse Index
• mFoundry Behind Alltel Wireless App
• 7 Things to Know About Gift Cards
• Get in the Loop
• OrderDynamics and CardinalCommerce Partner
• CyberMonday Better Than Expected say Etailers
• Visa Forms Joint Venture with Yalamanchili
• E-Commerce in US Drops 4% in November
• Faster Payments Reaches £25 Billion Fast!
• Montreal Men Arrested in London Card Scam
• 81% of UK to Use Internet for Xmas Shopping
• Mayaysia Airlines Selects WireCard for Internet Pa...
• CRYPTOCard's Two Factor Auth/Pay Card
• Black Friday Sales Up 1% Over 2007
• UK Card Fraud 14 Times Higher Overseas
• David (Discover) Nelms at Executives Club of Chica...
• Retail Gift Card Association is Born
• 
  

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BioPay Launches Prepaid Debit Card Program

Back  in April 2006 I put forth a proposal suggesting that Pay By Touch's Paycheck Secure launch a reloadable prepaid card that could be funded by the amount a payroll check was cashed for.


I specifically targeted the "underbanked" which is vastly of Hispanic origin, thus I even suggested calling the product "BonifiCard"  from "Bonificar" which translates as follows:


Spanish to English

Bonficar - take into account, credit
Bonificar - refund, discount reimburse
Bonificar - to give a bonus to
Bonificar - ameliorate, receive a premium, to improve,
Bonificar - act of goodness, reclamation, to make better, bonafide

It would be an "open loop" card and at the tiime, PBT had a strategic partnership with Discover, so I suggested partnering with them. "Discover the Prepaid Touch"   No word in the Press Release on whom they've partnered with in order to use it at "millions of locations" but I'm sure that will be available shortly.  I even suggested  tying in a "prepaid rewards" program which enticed them to use it for bill payment and build credit which would make them bankable and loyal.   No word on that either, but they have announced a reloadable prepaid debit card that is funded by the amount a payroll check is cashed for with bill payment capabilities.  Here's their press release:

BioPay Goes After Underbanked with Prepaid Card

Biometric check cashing company BioPay Paycheck Secure launches two new product offerings aimed at merchants who service the underbanked consumer sector: a prepaid debit card and a walk-in bill payment service.

Thus, the new prepaid debit card program allows retailers to cash customer checks and load the transaction proceeds onto a prepaid card which can subsequently be used for ATM cash withdrawals, online payments or at millions of other retailer establishments.

Biometric check cashing leader BioPay Paycheck Secure today announced that it has established partnerships that provide retailers with new, valuable product offerings, including walk-in bill payment and prepaid debit, to better serve underbanked consumers. This market constitutes more than 106 million individuals, who prefer to transact at alternate financial service centers, like grocery and convenience stores, rather than traditional banks.

The prepaid card program allows retailers to provide their check cashing customers with an alternative to cash. Now retailers can cash customer checks without stocking their stores with large sums of cash, instead loading the proceeds of a check cashing transaction directly onto a prepaid card.

The consumer may then use the value stored on the card at ATMs, online or at millions of retail and restaurant establishments. The card offers the consumer a safe means of building “savings”; providing protection should the card be lost or stolen and gives the consumer the convenience and prestige associated with mainstream card usage.

Both walk-in bill payment and prepaid cards markets are experiencing 30% plus growth rate, which offers grocery stores, convenience stores and other retailers the opportunity to increase their revenue, drive in-store traffic and increase their overall merchandise sales. Using Paycheck Secure, retailers may now provide this valuable service to the estimated 1 in 5 consumers who prefer to pay their bills in person.

"Providing our merchant customers with new tools to grow their business and meet the needs of the increasing alternate financial services market is our goal," said Jon Dorsey, CEO, BioPay Paycheck Secure. "The Paycheck Secure service positively enhances the transaction experience for underbanked consumers; and provides merchants with critical data to manage their businesses.”

Signing up to use bill pay and prepaid debit services or to cash checks using Paycheck Secure is quick and easy. The system's robust feature set and ease-of-use has facilitated over 53 million transactions worth $23 billion dollars for merchants and consumers nationwide.

For additional information about Paycheck Secure, please visit: www.paychecksecure.com.

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Discover - Morgan Stanley Had Secret Talks with Visa/MC

Looks like Discover is today's HomeATM Blog topic of Day as the next post refers to them as well...


Finextra: Discover alleges Morgan Stanley had secret talks with Visa and MasterCard

Discover alleges Morgan Stanley had secret talks with Visa and MasterCard

In a lawsuit filed against Morgan Stanley, card scheme Discover claims that its former parent engaged in secret talks with its rivals, jeopardising its antitrust case against Visa and Mastercard and forcing it to agree to a lower $2.75 billion settlement than it might otherwise have been able to claim.

Discover was set to pay Morgan Stanley the first $700 million recovered from the anti-trust case and half of any proceeds above $1.5 billion, up to a total consideration of $1.5 billion, as part of a deal struck when the bank spun off the card company last year.

However the card scheme has refused to hand over the $1.2 billion claimed by Morgan Stanley from the settlement and disputed the bank's claims. Morgan Stanley has filed a suit seeking a declaratory judgement to resolve the issue.

Discover's counter-claim alleges that Morgan Stanley continued to have secret talks with Visa and MasterCard about the anti-trust case after it had spun off the card scheme. The alleged negotiations only came to light as Discover's legal team debated the merits of a $2.75 mediated settlement offered the day before the case was due to go to court.

Discover was was seeking damages that could have reached $18 billion, after being tripled under antitrust law, according to the claim, but was forced to choose between accepting the money on the table or "risking a trial without knowing whether its privileged and confidential information had been disclosed to its opponents."

Morgan Stanley has denied the claims.

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More on Antitrust and Visa/MC...

Economists provide antitrust analysis in Discover settlement case

Boston, Dec. 4, 2008 -- CRA International, Inc., a worldwide leader in providing economic, financial, and management consulting services, today announced that the Company assisted counsel for Discover Financial Services with economic antitrust analysis pertaining to a lawsuit seeking damages from Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. for practices that suppressed third-party issuing on the Discover Network and the acceptance of its cards. On October 27, 2008, Discover announced that it had reached a $2.75 billion settlement agreement with Visa and MasterCard in the third largest reported antitrust settlement in U.S. history.

In October 2004, Discover filed a damages suit following the conclusion of a Department of Justice lawsuit, which determined that by barring banks from issuing cards on the Discover Network, Visa and MasterCard violated antitrust laws. After four years, Visa and MasterCard agreed to settle the Discover suit on the night before the trial was to begin.

CRA International had been retained by Constantine Cannon and Kirkland & Ellis LLP to assist in analyzing the anti-competitive effects of the rules of Visa and MasterCard in prohibiting their member banks from issuing Discover credit and debit cards.

CRA supported Discover's expert economist, Professor Jerry A. Hausman, MacDonald Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA, and a CRA Senior Consultant. The CRA team undertook economic analyses of market definition, market power, and the impacts of Visa's and MasterCard's rules on competition in the provision of credit and debit card network services. CRA also analyzed the monetary damages to Discover. This analysis contributed to determining the $2.75 billion settlement amount.

Jeffrey Shinder, co-lead counsel for Discover Financial Services and managing partner of Constantine Cannon's New York office, said, "CRA's analysis was invaluable to our case and helped us achieve one of the largest antitrust settlements in U.S. history. We are extraordinarily satisfied with CRA's economic analysis, as well as their depth of knowledge of the payments industry. CRA contributed with great teamwork and with the depth and skill of its economists."

"Our consultants are regularly tapped by leading companies seeking economic antitrust expertise," said James C. Burrows, CRA's President and Chief Executive Officer. "We are pleased that our economic antitrust analysis in this matter produced a positive result for our client."

CRA's work in this matter was directed by Craig Romaine, CRA Vice President, and Dr. Steven C. Salop, CRA Senior Consultant and Professor of Economics and Law at the Georgetown University Law Center. Other key CRA senior staff assisting in this effort included Spencer Graf, Stephen Kletter, and Mary Beth Savio.

About CRA International

Founded in 1965, CRA International is a leading global consulting firm that offers economic, financial, and business management expertise to major law firms, businesses, accounting firms, and governments. CRA's consultants combine uncommon analytical rigor with practical experience and in-depth understanding of industries and markets. CRA is adept at handling critical, tough assignments with high-stakes outcomes. The Company's analytical strength enables it to reach objective, factual conclusions that help clients make important business and policy decisions and resolve critical disputes. Headquartered in Boston, CRA has offices throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Detailed information about CRA is available at www.crai.com .

Source: Company press release.

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Discounts Pushed Sales on Cyber Monday

Ecommerce sales on Cyber Monday were pushed by discount offers according to a new report from comScore.

According to the company, Cyber Monday turning into the second highest online shopping day ever, reaching nearly $850 million. Year over year, shopping increased 15% but money spent per shopper actually declined.

Shoppers spent an average of $91 online this year versus nearly $97 in 2007. Despite the increase, though, there are signs that etailers need to do more to get shoppers in their online doors.

Both the number of transactions per consumer (9% decrease) and dollars spent per buyer (5% decline) dropped year over year, indicators that consumers are not buying as often or as much in 2008. It is also an indicator that consumers are shopping for price as much as for product.

"Because of the extremely attractive prices offered by a myriad of retailers, it shouldn't be surprising that nearly two million more consumers purchased online this Cyber Monday compared to last. But, because of their reduced spending power it's also evident that those who did buy were unable or unwilling to spend as much per person as we saw last year," said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. "That said, it's clear that Cyber Monday has become a well publicized event that has fundamentally captured consumers' attention and a meaningful share of their wallets."

As in year's past, consumers are still shopping from work. Shopping from work increased by 50% on Cyber Monday.

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Orange Money Launched in Ivory Coast

Orange has teamed up with French bank BNP Paribas to launch its Orange Money mobile payment and money transfer service in Ivory Coast.

Orange Ivory Coast is the group’s first company to launch the service.

The operator handles the services’ platform and marketing, while BNP Paribas’ Ivory Coast subsidiary BICICI is in charge of issuing and guaranteeing the electronic money.

With Orange money, Orange customers can deposit and withdraw up to XOF 100,000 (EUR 152.44) from the Orange Money account, make person-to-person money transfers, top-up their airtime credit with up to XOF 10,000 (EUR 15.24) and pay bills.

In order to use the service, customers have to open an Orange Money account which is activated for free without requiring any minimum deposit. Users do not need bank accounts to subscribe to the service. Orange Money is also to be launched in other countries over the coming months.

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Worst In 3 Decades - November Retail Sales

Retailers post worst month on record, setting somber holiday tone - MarketWatch

Retailers post worst month on record

Dismal sales set somber tone for rest of holidays

By Andria Cheng,MarketWatch
Dec. 4, 2008

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Retailers delivered the biggest drop in monthly sales in over three decades, an echo of their dismal October performance, as jittery consumers were pinched by the recessionary economy.

While Black Friday promotions helped bring in more shoppers and helped stem some sales declines, that still wasn't enough to help make up for poor results the rest of the month, which had about a week fewer post-Thanksgiving shopping days than last year.

This holiday season may shake out to be retailers' nightmare, with their worst combined November and December on record, analysts said.

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Prepaid Debit with Money Remittance Function

MiCash launches reloadable prepaid debit card with money remittance function

Pre-paid financial service provider MiCash launches a reloadable prepaid debit card with an integrated worldwide remittance function, aimed at unbanked or underserved consumers. The card is particularly targeted at immigrants working in the US who seek to send money home to their families.

The MiCash reloadable prepaid card allows cardholders to make electronic purchases, pay their bills online, make cash withdrawals at millions of available ATMs worldwide and employ such services as free direct deposits and mobile banking. Additionally, the cards can be used to carry out international card to card as well as card-to-cash transfers.

Card-to-cash transfers require that MiCash cardholders set up family members or friends as recipients then proceed to transfer funds to them via an online account or a call customer service. Recipients can take possession of the funds at over 12.000 Bancomer Transfer Services locations in such countries as India, China, Mexico, the Philippines, South and Central America.