Power brokers: retailing/wholesaling: large retailers have widespread exposures that run the gamut from parking lot potholes to protecting the security of consumer credit card data. Retail Power Brokers know how to cover all the bases.
Gary W. Bull, ARM Gary Bull, managing director of Marsh's retail practice group, is probably the dean of brokers that serve large retailing clients. "There's nobody who can match Gary for the depth and breadth of his knowledge of the retailing industry," said one risk manager. ...

CME test.
Sponsored by the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Center for Continuing Education To obtain CME credits, complete the test below, following these guidelines: 1. Read each article carefully. 2. Choose the most appropriate response to each of the following questions and record these...

Credit where credit is due.
Frederick Bell was the primary cardholder of a CIBC VISA card. His wife was an authorized user of the same card. After his death, she argued that she was only responsible for the charges on the card that she had personally made and not for her late husband's charges....

You own you: when identity thieves open an account in your name, it should be the bank's problem, not yours.
In 1995, a freelance editor in Washington, D.C., named Anne Meadows began a five-year nightmare when she got a call from an alert employee of BellSouth, who warned her that she had become a victim of identity theft. A year earlier, she learned, thieves had stolen her name, address,...

Parking/transit cards.
Lexis Systems, Inc. is changing the way their contact-less transit cards, SmarTrip[R] cards, are being distributed with the introduction of the X2-CD SmarTrip[R] Card Dispenser. The fully automated X2-CD makes cards available immediately, and provides the additional benefit of increased security using a cashless system. The X2-CD accepts $1,...

Taiwan's consumers in debt.
Taiwan's consumers are drowning in credit card debt and banks on the island are struggling to collect. In October 2005, over 50,000 people were forced into bankruptcy because they were in default on high credit card debt, according to Taiwan Headlines, a website produced and maintained by...

Buy now, pay later: greening credit cards.
In the U.S., there are now more than two credit cards for every man, woman and child. As correspondent Lowell Bergman recently reported on PBS Frontline, With more than 641 million credit cards in circulation and accounting for an estimated $1.5 trillion of consumer spending, the U.S. economy has...

Budgeting your future: figuring out tomorrow's financial needs today can prevent big headaches.
Before his high school graduation in 2004, Michael Estoll, now 19, worked 25 hours on weekends and evenings at a Quitman, Texas, feed store for $225 per week. He was promised $400 per week and a junior manager's slot after he graduated. Excited by the prospect of a bigger...

Financially distressed consumers' information search for retirement plans.
Using data from the Mature Market Survey (MMS) from an educational foundation, this study examined financially distressed consumers' information search behavior for retirement plans. Findings showed that financially distressed consumers sought financial information from media and professional services when making a retirement plan. Age, income, and gender were found...

Bad credit: cashing in on the new bankruptcy law.
Remember "welfare queens"? That absurd image of black, inner-city, unwed mothers--purposely popping out illegitimate babies so that they could dine on filet mignon purchased with food stamps--strongly influenced the welfare "reform" debate and its pernicious outcome. The welfare-queen image was never an accurate description of the women who actually...