State of FINCOM June 2015

I missed the report for April.  I have enclosed the April and May report

The numbers for the month of April are as follows:

The checking account opened the month of April  with a balance of $6301.12 Credit -$203.02 PayPal transfer Credit – $69.50  R2 quartermaster sales Debits total  – $293.87
USPS –  28.36 QM postage
Wal-Mart – 6.89 envelopes for qm
Vanguard – 258.62 (ribbon order)
Closing balance for the account was 6279.77

The numbers for the month of May are as follows:
The checking account opened the month of May with a balance of $6279.77 Credit -257.81 PayPal transfer Credit – 123.00 R15 quartermaster sales Debits total  – $946.26
USPS –  29.94 QM postage
Wal-Mart – 5.32 envelopes for GM
Pin pros Inc. – 472.00  Collar brass
Signature Coins – 439.00  Challenge Coins Closing balance for the account was 5714.32

The new collar brass is in.  Cost is $5 for 1 or $10 for 2.  You may order at will.

Challenge coin are on the way.  Do not know the cost yet.

New Payment cards will have Smart Chips

In October 2015, the much-discussed Payment Networks  Liability Shift associated with EuroPay, MasterCard, and Visa (EMV) is due to take effect in the United States. It s a major milestone for financial companies (meaning banks and credit unions), credit card issuers, retailers, and more. There is a great deal of information, and misinformation, afloat regarding the US EMV migration roadmap as presented by the Payment Networks. Shedding some light on the realities involved is helpful for everyone concerned. There are an estimated 1.24 billion payment cards and 15.4 million POS terminals currently in use, most of them in other countries.

Making global financial transactions work across many cards and devices are smart chips embedded within new EMV-compliant credit and debit cards. These chips make interfacing with the various POS terminals possible. However, the EMVCo standard has yet to be adopted globally, a situation that the Payment Networks  EMV migration roadmap for the US intends to correct. To date, Europe, Canada, Latin America, and the Asia/Pacific region are all well on their way with migrating from the legacy magstripe standard to EMV chip card technology. The U.S., the world s single largest user of payment cards, has just begun the process. However, the potential impacts of being the last bastion of magstripe technology is forcing U.S. financial entities to take the idea seriously. The main driver behind the EMV migration is card-related financial fraud. Despite the best efforts of global law enforcement agencies, global losses have risen steadily, increasing pressure to find a global solution. Annual costs of card fraud in the U.S. alone are estimated at $8.6 billion per year. Experts believe that figure will rise to $10 billion or higher by 2015, especially if the U.S. does not make significant progress with chip card adoption. The rising cost of fraud is accompanied by a concurrent rise in mobile payments. In 2010, the total gross dollar volume of mobile payments in the U.S. alone was $16 billion; some experts expect this volume to rise to $214 billion by 2015.

Visa, a prime mover in the US migration to EMV, states that the pace of EMV-adoption is accelerating globally, estimating that right now, 62% of transactions conducted across international borders involve a chip-enabled card used at a chip-enabled terminal. Currently, our government is content to let the financial industry set its own course- but that hands-off approach may not last long. One key component in the EMV discussion is its accompanying liability shift. This liability shift means that those issuers and merchants using non-EMV compliant devices that choose to accept transactions made with EMV-compliant cards assume liability for any and all transactions that are found to be fraudulent. MasterCard defines the liability shift this way: The party, either the issuer or merchant, who does not support EMV, assumes liability for counterfeit card transactions. Understand that by issuer, the card companies do not mean themselves; the term refers instead to banks, credit unions, and any other financial institution issuing credit or debit cards. Liability is an emotionally charged power word with potentially huge and disturbing ramifications.

My American Express was replaced about 4 months ago and the new one had a smart chip.  Although smart chips are old technology, the US is always lagging behind most other countries in implementing new technology.  Sometimes change is a good thing.  Chances are the new plastic payment card you receive will have a chip embedded in it.

MGEN Barry Jackson

COFINCOM

SFMC