The Conservative party has laid the blame for Britain’s debt situation firmly on store cards.

George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, has attacked the store card industry for charging “excessively high interest rates” and claims that this issue is central to Britain’s over-indebtedness. However, the average balance on a store card is just £162 and in 2006 the Competition Commission concluded that the issue was best tackled with the provision of information to consumers.

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Do you recognise yourself paying for your food shopping in a ’self check out’, paying for travel through airport check-in kiosks, and renting movies from self-service DVD rental kiosks instead of traditional retail spaces?

Well in that case your part of the new developments where snapshots are being developed at photo kiosks, motorists are refuelling their vehicles at pay-at-pump gas stations and where restaurant diners can order from touch-screens at fast-food chains and use hand-held, pay-at-table devices at sit-down restaurants.

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The proliferation of new contact centre delivery locations globally has done little to allay fears of wide-spread price and attrition increases for outsourcing vendors.

Among the key domestic markets from where contact centre outsourcing services are delivered, a new report estimates that the UK, the Netherlands and France rank among the most expensive in terms of fully-loaded price per agent per hour (including wages, benefits, telephony / technology, property, mark-up and other expenses).

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The number of wealthy women is soaring while the wealth gap between men and women is quickly narrowing. As a result, banks have placed considerable effort in various initiatives to attract more female clients. However, a recent report warns that this ‘champagne and chocolate’ approach will not work as women are looking for more from their private bank than a spa discount and a pink website.

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Despite raised salaries and lower taxes, Swedes won’t spend as much money this summer, new research from the largest Scandinavian bank Nordea says.

The Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter writes that the global economy is to blame: “The increasing food prices, fuel prices and property interests have affected Swedes’ budgets. Subsequently you cut down on your holidays abroad.”

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Today’s teens are the most affluent generation of young people to date. Over one-third receive some kind of allowance from their parents, and nearly three-quarters work around the house to earn it.

However, a new report shows that although teenagers are highly motivated by money and the myriad products and services for which it can be exchanged, they can also be naive about the consequences of reckless spending and sloppy money management.

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Abbey has increased its mortgage lending by more than 10% since last year.

Despite the slowdown in mortgage lending, which is at its lowest level in terms of new mortgages since January 1999, Abbey has increased its share of net lending in the UK mortgage market to 15.9%, up from 4.9% a year ago. This signals the bank’s intention to grow its market share while many of its competitors struggle amid the credit crunch.
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Many commentators have argued that today’s global ‘credit crunch’ has its origins in the relaxation of monetary policy following the bursting of the dot com bubble and efforts to avert a US recession post-9/11. Its impact on the global economy will be felt via the same transmission mechanisms that have led to past contagion. However, comparisons with the past may not be that relevant as the significant pace of economic globalisation has redefined the balance of power.

The report Surviving the Credit Crunch: How Vulnerable Are Emerging Markets argues that the global economy’s evolution over the past decade - notably the rise of China and India and the political and economic maturation of many emerging markets - mean that the identity of those most vulnerable, and the ways in which they are exposed, has changed.
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The UK private motor insurance market could finally make a profit in 2009 after 14 years of unprofitability. A new report forecast that the UK private motor insurance market will make a loss this year but move into a profit of approximately £30million in 2009 as premium income will grow at a faster rate than claims costs. 2009 could be a historic year for the private motor insurance market, putting an end to a painful 14 consecutive years of losses. However, Datamonitor’s forecast sees the market move quickly back into a loss in 2010 as competition intensifies.

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The shares of Visa, the largest card company in the world, have been floated on the New York Stock Exchange and, as a result, banks that have issued Visa cards will receive shares worth millions of dollars. For Australian institutions, this injection of funds, although one-off in nature, will be warmly received at a time when banks are facing a liquidity squeeze. Visa’s decision to follow in the footsteps of smaller competitor MasterCard, which was listed in 2006, has resulted in the largest IPO ever recorded, raising $17.9 billion (A$19.4 billion).

As Visa is owned by a consortium of the banks that issue Visa cards, the public listing of Visa means that shares will be disbursed to the constituent banks in proportion to the number of cards issued. The banks can then keep the Visa shares or sell them on the market as they see fit. While the benefits of this listing will be felt by banks around the globe, not least those in the US, Australian banks are also set to reap substantial bonuses.

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