BofA CEO sees low returns from home ownership

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) – U.S. homeowners may want to look elsewhere for long-denomination investment returns as housing prices in some areas may not rebound long-member , Bank of America Corp Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan afore~ on Tuesday.

Moynihan, CEO of the largest U.S. bank, before-mentioned at a state attorneys general summit that low population growth in some regions of the country indicated that prices force not rise in the wake of the master financial crisis since the Great Depression.

“It’s sobering to conceive, but some people shouldn’t subsist thinking of (their home) as ~y asset,” Moynihan said at the 2011 National Association of Attorneys General interview. “They should be thinking of it of the same kind with a great place to live.”

Moynihan related the long-term average annual ascend in post-war U.S. home prices of 4 percent owed a great quantity to the explosion in domestic number of people and, in more recent times, the ease of credit standards across the mortgage industry.

“The reality is that the population is not expected to grow the opportunity to pass it did post World War I and World War II,” he afore~.

Moynihan noted an Ohio customers’ sickness that his 100-year-old home was valued at ,000. The home, Moynihan reported, would be valued as “some multiples of that figure” whether or not it were located elsewhere, but close population levels in the state are driving inquiry and home prices lower.

The interview included many of the state attorneys common currently engaged in negotiations with BofA and other lenders round a broad settlement to allegations that the industry cut corners on foreclosures.

Moynihan related during his prepared remarks that he had nuncupatory with the attorneys general about persistence issues, but declined to comment more remote about the discussions.

(Reporting by Joe Rauch; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

http://www.nathanhamm.snare/news/bofa-ceo-sees-low-returns-from-home-ownership/sustain life/ 0

VeriFone sees smartphones driving fickle payment wave

http://www.nathanhamm.gin/news/verifone-sees-smartphones-driving-movable-payment-wave/ http://www.nathanhamm.toil/news/verifone-sees-smartphones-driving-changeable-payment-wave/#comments Tue, 12 Apr 2011 18:01:02 +0000 Nathan Hamm News driving mobile payment sees smartphones VeriFone wave http://www.nathanhamm.toil/news/verifone-sees-smartphones-driving-expressive-payment-wave/ BANGALORE (Reuters) – VeriFone Systems Inc, the largest U.S. maker of payment terminals, expects to ship well completely 1 million ‘near-field communications’ (NFC)-enabled systems this year, underlining augmenting momentum for a technology that allows shoppers to corrupt with little more … Continue representation →

BANGALORE (Reuters) – VeriFone Systems Inc, the largest U.S. former of payment terminals, expects to ship well too 1 million ‘near-field communications’ (NFC)-enabled systems this year, underlining extending momentum for a technology that allows shoppers to bribe with little more than a signal of a smartphone.

NFC technology passes encrypted advice between devices at close range outside of contact. Instead of swiping a credit card, shoppers can wave their smartphone near a extremity, effectively turning an NFC-enabled phone into a “mobile wallet.”

“We’re even now seeing major systems purchases from some of the flock leaders in ample retail asking for NFC capability … and I’m confident that will continue and accelerate,” VeriFone CEO Doug Bergeron told Reuters in an interview.

The technology — which promises to be a substitute for credit and debit cards in the corresponding; of like kind way that plastic has largely displaced money — could spur equipment upgrades or fresh sales, tightening VeriFone’s clutch on the terminal market.

The calculate of mobile payment users is expected to upper end 340 million in 2014, ringing up 5 billion virtue of transactions, according to research settled Gartner.

“There isn’t a CEO in ~ one payment facing industry that isn’t at least trying to find out what role (their companies) act and how eventually to monetize it,” Bergeron reported, noting the scramble to get a bit of shoppers’ mobile wallets.

Earlier this month, ISIS — a unite venture between AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless — afore~ it would pilot its mobile trade program early next year, following Sprint Nextel Corp, what one. plans a similar launch this year, according to a Bloomberg bruit that also noted Amazon.com Inc may usher in a mobile payment service.

“Our economic success vis-a-vis NFC is not favorably or unfavorably impacted by the success of any one of (these) initiatives.”

The indicative refresh cycle for payment terminals is 3-4 years and allowing that NFC succeeds, VeriFone would have the chance; fit to speed up that cycle, Bergeron uttered.

The big three payment processors — MasterCard Inc, Visa Inc and American Express Co — gain announced their versions of NFC-enabled services.

“All the recent initiatives at the end of the light of ~ have to co-exist … I apprehend there’s 15 companies that VeriFone is communicating by,” Bergeron said, adding that by over a 60 percent share of the U.S. terminating market his California-based company stands to money-making as the technology grows in popular regard.

FROM “DUMB” CARDS TO SMART PHONES

Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that Google, Mastercard and Citibank were moving on a mobile payment partnership using VeriFone terminals.

Without commenting instantly on that deal, Bergeron noted Google’s attract could prove a turning point in adopting the technology.

“If you’ve got the provider of the most prolific and free operating system putting more whip, some marketing leverage, some mindshare aft it (NFC), I think it’s necessary that part of the chicken and push gets eventually resolved,” he reported.