NYPay Payments Group to Host "Future of Loyalty and Rewards" Monday, June 13th

Nitin Gupta, Regional Sales Manager for Yodlee, runs a Payments networking group (NYPAY) in order to facilitate the sharing of best practices and interaction between the NY metro area payments professionals.

NYPAY has over 300 senior execs in the group.

Their next event,  Monday, June 13 will discuss the future of Loyalty and Rewards. 


More details can be found on http://loyalty.eventbrite.com/

Hosted By

NYPAY Payments Group

The Payments industry is undergoing a transformation as we speak. Prepaid cards, gift cards, new forms of payment like PayPal, Amazon Payments, Zong, Bango etc are all vivid demonstrations of the vibrancy of new thinking in the payments industry.


If you are a member of the payments industry, you are invited to join NYPay, a networking group of the NY Metro area based payments professionals and progressive thinkers.


Objective- NYPay's primary goal is to provide a face-to-face professional networking forum for the regular exchange of views on these issues among active professionals within the payments industry who are located in the NY Metro Area.

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About NYPay:  NYPay is designed to provide a professional networking forum for the exchange of views and ideas among active professionals within the payments industry that are located in the New York City metro area. The group interacts via an online user group and at regular face-to-face functions that will focus on current payments trends and issues.  "NYPay provides a much needed opportunity for payments professionals to stay current on industry developments while connecting with colleagues from various institutions. Based on NYPay's stated membership profile, the association is seeking active professionals involved in the Financial Services Industry payments field who can contribute to the forum's regular discussion groups. Membership is by invitation only.

Ticket Information

TICKET TYPE	SALES END	PRICE	FEE	QUANTITY
NYPAY Members	Jun 12, 2011	$10.00	$1.54	1                 2                 3                 4

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Event Details

“The Future of Loyalty and Rewards: A Payments Industry Perspective”

Monday, June 13^th | 5:30 – 8:30 PM

AllianceBernstein | 1345 Avenue of the Americas, 41^st Floor, New York, NY

We are pleased to announce our upcoming event, “The Future of Loyalty and Rewards” on June 13, 2011. Join us for a discussion on how loyalty and rewards programs have evolved and where they might be heading.

Time:                      Networking           5:30-6:15 PM

Panel discussion   6:15-7:45 PM

Networking           7:45-8:30 PM

Location:               AllianceBernstein, 1345 Avenue of the Americas, 41^st Floor, New York, NY

Topics:                    How will the regulatory environment change reward and loyalty programs?

Will today’s reward programs disappear or become of merchant-funded?

What does mobile’s growing presence mean for delivery of loyalty programs?

Are airline-based loyalty programs losing their appeal?

How will loyalty programs morph over the coming years?

Will loyalty programs extend successfully beyond cards into other areas?

Loyalty and rewards have been key drivers of consumer spending for decades, but the way they are configured, delivered and who pays for them is changing.  NYPAY has invited an array of panelists representing a bank, a merchant, an analyst and a rewards provider to lead a discussion of what we’re seeing today and what we can expect in the future. Please join us for conversation that will spur new thinking and offer the chance to connect with colleagues.

To Register:          RSVP now at http://loyalty-eorg.eventbrite.com/. Space is limited!

Security:                Pre-registration required due to security requirements for building entry.  Attendees must present government-issued photo ID for entry.

Panelists:

·         Scott Grimes, CEO, Cardlytics

·         Arnold Lewis, VP Customer Loyalty and Rewards , Macys

·         Patricia Hewitt, The Mercator Advisory Group

·         Amy Harris, Senior Vice-President, Loyalty Marketing and ThankYou, Citi

See our LinkedIn group for more information: http://linkd.in/hT8KO2

                          Follow us on Twitter  @NYPAYGROUP

Attendee ListSort by: Date | First Name | Last Name

James Mullane, Vice President, MasterCard Worldwide  Therese R Revesz, Principal, Revesz International LLC  Sean Murray, Research Manager, GLG  Robert Niziol, Managing Member, Hal Cash North America  alex cooper, CEO, Paysis  Chris Cruz, Investor, Searchlight Capital Partners  Rick Otero, President, Kimera Consulting  Marilyn Keyes, VP, Implementations, Redwage  Stephen Bartell, President, Bartell Businesses Inc.  Judi Squire, President, J. L. Squire & Associates, Inc.  Patricia Hewitt, Director, Mercator Advisory Group  Paul Compton, SVP Sales / Business Development , EVO Platinum  Amy Harris, Senior Vice-President, Loyalty Marketing and Thank, Citi  Scott Grimes, CEO, Cardlytics  Arnold Lewis, VP Customer Loyalty and Rewards, Macys  Dale Laszig, Senior Vice President, Castles Technology Co., Ltd.  Joseph Salesky, Founder & Chief Strategy Officer, FreeMonee Network  Phaedra Ballard, Analyst, BrainJuicer  Daniel Seeger, Business Analyst, Capgemini  James Liang, Managing Partner, Hope Street Advisers, LLC  Josh Kampel, CMO, Transactis  Andrew Duffett, Manager, American Express  Jim shanahan, President, Shanahan & Associates LLC  Joseph Proto, CEO, Transactis  Robert Hyer, Managing Director, Houlihan Lokey  Bruce Urbanek Urbanek, Senior Vice President, Houlihan Lokey  Carmen Paraschiv, VP of Strategic Development, PAX technology, Inc.  Christine Kovich, Vice President, Core Payment Strategy, MasterCard  Pascal Caillon, Vice President, CorFire  Michael Doron, VP, The Americas, Deutsche Telecom/ClickandBuy  Michael Wigon, Managing Director, PurusAnalytics  Mike Brody, Finance VP/ Co-Founder, Payfone  Lisa Brzezicki, SVP- Bank Partner Programs, Mazooma, Inc.  Edward Boyle, CEO, Monetaris, Inc  Lawrence Blagman, Senior Director, Claymore Partners, Inc  Michael Cardace, Consumer Social Media Project Manager, Citi  Linnea Perelli-Minetti, Citigroup Account Support Coordinator, Visa Inc.  Steven VanFleet, President/CEO, RewardsNOW, Inc.  Kristin McClement, Product, Payfone  Rodger Desai, CEO, Payfone  Rodman Reef, Managing Principal, Reef Karson Consulting, LLC  glenn fodor, vice president, morgan stanley  Alan Mandelbaum, Consultant, Independent  Mordy Kaplinsky, EVP Product, FonWallet  Paul Hornung, Sr. Account Executive, Global Affluent, Innovation, Visa Inc  Rajiv Goyal, Director, TFPayments  Jim Stone, Senior Account Manager, Mercator Advisory Group  steve kietz, Chief Revenue Officer, Emerging Payment Technologies  raman gilotra, Principal, Infosys Consulting  Dan Goodman, VP, MasterCard  David True, EVP, MCAworks  Pam Lloyd, VP merchant relations, MasterCard  Amanda Caixeiro, Talent Acquisition , Isis Mobile Commerce  Emily Dragone, Talent Acquisition , Isis Mobile Commerce  Richard Wendell, Vice President, Global Strategy and Business Devel, American Express  Scott Hamilton, Self, Director of Marketing  Dudley Brundige, VP, GLG  Mike Kutsch, Principal, Payment Strategy, LLC  Ulrike Guigui, EVP, Acculynk  Craig Weinberg, Mobile Director , Mindshare Worldwide  Gayle Bock, Chief Marketing Officer, Frontier  Diane Dolinsky-Pickar, Co-Founder and CMO, Mojo40  David Sica, Business Leader, Visa  Hiro Taylor, Analyst, Macquarie  Ronald Mazursky, Managing Director, Market Innovations Inc.  Nitin Gupta, Regional Manager, North East, Yodlee  Frank Faeth, Consultant, Faeth Consulting  Tom Penichter, General Manager, TGP Associates  Seth Harlem, Manager , Advanced Software Systems  linda simon, National Account Manager, The Prepaid Press  Michael Noles, President, MKN Associates, LLC  John Almash, President, Stratcom LLC  will peppo, SVP, TxVia  David Gerbino, AVP Research and Database Marketing, Provident Bank  Susan Andrews, Business Development, Martiz  Bryan Derman, Partner, Glenbrook Partners  James Fleming, In Search, In Search  Camilla Velasquez  Tulu Yunus

NRF Letter to Senate Calls Tester’s Swipe Fee Reform ‘Compromise’ a ‘Sham’

June 07, 2011 05:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time 

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The National Retail Federation today sent a letter to all members of the U.S. Senate asking them to vote against a so-called “compromise” amendment offered by Senator Jon Tester, D-Mont., that would delay a new federal law intended to save retailers and consumers more than $1 billion a month by lowering “swipe” fees banks charge to process debit card transactions.

“Even Wall Street bonuses and exotic junkets are likely to be considered costs under Senator Tester’s new language. Rather than bringing fees down, this amendment will force swipe fees even higher.”

“This bill is no compromise,” NRF Senior Vice President for Government Relations David French said. “It is a sham intended to kill swipe fee reform even more quickly than his original bill and should be seen for what it is.”

Tester today offered an amendment that would delay swipe fee reform by one year rather than the two years proposed under legislation he introduced earlier this spring. But the amendment goes further than the original bill by mandating that the Federal Reserve take into consideration a broad range of costs rather than those associated specifically with the cost of processing transactions.

“Retailers and their customers could be forced to subsidize banks’ costs of installing new ATM machines or building new branches,” French said. “Even Wall Street bonuses and exotic junkets are likely to be considered costs under Senator Tester’s new language. Rather than bringing fees down, this amendment will force swipe fees even higher.”

A swipe fee reform provision included in last year’s Wall Street law is scheduled to take effect July 21. The provision would reduce the fees by an estimated 70 percent, saving about $14 billion a year that retailers plan to pass along to their customers through discounts or other benefits, but the banking industry is spending millions of dollars to delay reform.

Regulations proposed by the Federal Reserve to implement the provision would lower debit card swipe fees from their current level of 1 to 2 percent of each transaction to a flat fee of no more than 12 cents per transaction for large banks that adhere to fee schedules set by the card companies. Banks that set their own rates would be free to charge any fee they believe the market would bear provide that they do so independently. Financial institutions with less than $10 billion in assets are exempt.

As the world's largest retail trade association and the voice of retail worldwide, NRF's global membership includes retailers of all sizes, formats and channels of distribution as well as chain restaurants and industry partners from the United States and more than 45 countries abroad. In the United States, NRF represents the breadth and diversity of an industry with more than 1.6 million American companies that employ nearly 25 million workers and generated 2010 sales of $2.4 trillion. www.nrf.com

Read complete letter

Contacts

National Retail Federation
J. Craig Shearman, 202-626-8134
shearmanc@nrf.com
www.nrf.com/swipefees

Discover® U.S. Spending MonitorSM Consumer Confidence Remains Flat in May

June 08, 2011 07:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time 

Majority of Consumers Planning Less Discretionary Spending; High Gas Prices, Unemployment Pressuring Budgets and Finances

RIVERWOODS, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Consumer sentiment remained stagnant in May, as both spending expectations and economic confidence saw little change from the prior two months, according to the Discover U.S. Spending Monitor. The Monitor, a poll of 8,200 consumers tracking economic confidence and spending intentions on a daily basis, rose 0.1 to 89.5 in May. That figure is down from this year’s high of 93.1, reported in January, and reflects the pressure that high gas prices and continued high unemployment are putting on budgets and finances.

“Higher costs for fuel, food and other household expenses are putting stress on American families, and continued high unemployment means there may not be much relief in sight”

That pressure is shown in the declining percentage of consumers who expect to have money left over at the end of the month. A full 42.4 percent say they would not have money left over after paying their bills this month, a jump of 2.5 points from April and the highest number reported this year. Conversely, the number of people who said they would have money left over at the end of the month was at its lowest point since March 2010, coming in at 45.7 percent. That is a drop of 1.5 points from April.

Against this backdrop, nearly 57 percent of consumers rate the economy as poor, up nearly 2 points from April, and, for the third month in a row, more than half of consumers say economic conditions in the country are getting worse. In addition, reflecting the higher costs for fuel and food, May is the third month in a row that more than 50 percent of consumers expect higher household expenses. To offset those expenses, for the fifth time in the last six months, more than half of consumers say they will spend less on discretionary items.

The Monitor was flat for consumers’ attitudes about their personal finances as well. Twenty-six percent rated their personal finances as good, a slight increase from April, while the percentage of consumers who rated their finances as poor dropped to 23.4 percent, down from 24.7 percent in April.

“Higher costs for fuel, food and other household expenses are putting stress on American families, and continued high unemployment means there may not be much relief in sight,” said Julie Loeger, senior vice president of brand and product management for Discover. “With fewer people expecting to have money left over after paying bills, we know that discretionary spending – which helps fuel our overall economy – may continue to lag.”

May’s Monitor Reflects Differing Attitudes Among Household Income Levels

The results of May’s Monitor reflect different attitudes between households that make more than $75,000 a year and those that earn less than $40,000 annually.

For households that earn less than $40,000 annually, 60.2 percent said in May that they would not have money left over after paying bills at the end of this month. That figure is a record for the 4-year-old Monitor and a jump of 7.2 points from April.

At the same time, 77.7 percent of households making more than $75,000 annually said in May that they would have money left over after paying bills, which is the second-highest figure ever recorded in the Monitor and a 4.2 point jump from April. The only time sentiment for that question was higher was in August 2007, when 78.1 percent of those households said they would have money left over after paying bills.

Other differences between the two households:

• For those that make more than $75,000 annually, 26.2 percent plan to spend more next month on household improvements, nearly double the amount, 13.7 percent, of households that make less than $40,000 a year.
• Nearly 20 percent of households that make more than $75,000 annually plan to spend more next month on major personal purchases, compared to 14.4 percent of those in households that earn less than $40,000 annually.
• Of households earning more than $75,000 a year, 49.2 percent rate the U.S. economy as poor, compared to 60.9 percent of households making less than $40,000 who feel that way.

Less Savings, More Spending on Certain Items

May’s Spending Monitor reveals another record, as the percentage of consumers who said they planned to put less money into savings or investments next month grew to 42.3 percent. That figure is a jump of 2.5 points from April. At the same time, the percentage of people who plan to save or invest more next month dropped to 8.7 percent, the lowest figure since June 2010.

Despite the record number of consumers planning to save or invest less in the month ahead, consumers spending intentions in certain areas inched upwards in May:

• Home Improvement: 17 percent of consumers plan to spend more in this category, compared to 16 percent in April.
• Discretionary Entertainment: 11 percent of consumers said in May they would spend more in this category, up 3.1 points from April. However, 52.7 percent of consumers still plan on spending less in this category, virtually unchanged from last month.
• Major Personal Purchases: 15 percent of consumers plan to spend more on these purchases, an increase of nearly 2 points from April.

For more Discover U.S. Spending Monitor survey data, charts and information, please visit www.discoverfinancial.com/surveys/spending.shtml.

About Discover U.S. Spending Monitor

The Discover^® U.S. Spending Monitor^SM is a monthly index of consumer spending intentions and capacity that is based on interviews with a random sample of 8,200 U.S. adults conducted at a rate of 275 per night. In addition to spending, the survey asks consumers their opinions on the U.S. economy and their personal finances. The Monitor began in May 2007 with a base index of 100. Surveys are conducted by Rasmussen Reports, an independent survey research firm (www.rasmussenreports.com).

About Discover

Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) is a direct banking and payment services company with one of the most recognized brands in U.S. financial services. Since its inception in 1986, the company has become one of the largest card issuers in the United States. The company operates the Discover card, America's cash rewards pioneer, and offers personal and student loans, online savings accounts, certificates of deposit and money market accounts through its Discover Bank subsidiary. Its payment businesses consist of Discover Network, with millions of merchant and cash access locations; PULSE, one of the nation's leading ATM/debit networks; and Diners Club International, a global payments network with acceptance in more than 185 countries and territories. For more information, visit www.discoverfinancial.com.

Contacts

Discover
Matthew Towson
224-405-5649
matthewtowson@discover.com