Why Banks Are Ditching ‘.com’ for Bank

`Bank’ Domain – Consumer Protection

With over 4,000 registrations in the U.S for web address, European banks have been making haste in acquiring the more secured domain name `bank; where more than 500 European financial organizations have signed to take advantage of this special domain. According to the chief executive of domain name seller, CentralNic, the reason is `consumer protection.

Ben Crawford informed CNBC that the reason for the `bank’ domain is basically that the millions of dollars which are lost annually are through online fraud’. Several banks together with the popular establishments in recent yearshave seen breaks in their network inclusive of JPMorgan in 2014 when the bank had revealed that some 76 million household together with seven million small businesses had their data conceded by cyber-attack.

Besides this, a report of 2014 by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies projected that the cybercrime costs the global economy over $400 billion each year. The domain name `bank’ is only made available to banks and hence it gives consumers the security of knowing that if they tend to get to a website which ends with `bank’, it is not a bogus website, it is not deceptive and it can be trusted.

`CentralNic – Support Financial Institutions

In order to avail one of these domain names, it is said that banks are paying about $1,500 which is higher than the standard consumer name of domain. The role of CentralNic in the procedure is to render support to financial institutions in order to go through the compliancy issues, in obtaining the new domain name while `bank’ seems to be operated by fTLD Registry Services.

Moreover, CentralNic also seems to have some contribution in the launch of Google’s Alphabet website `abc.xyz’ Entrepreneur. The owner of `xyz’ is Daniel Negari though CentralNic is the exclusive wholesaler for `xyz’ which helps in powering the domain’s registry. Registrations on `xyz’, according to Reuters had increased intensely since the announcement from Google with Crawford adding the `xyz’ being the only contender to the future `.com’.Customers are being compelled to seek alternative options of banking due to bank fees and low interest rates. But will going `bank-free’, provide the answer to these problems?

`Credit Union/Money Market Mutual Funds

To know if the world could do without a bank, it is essential to determine how the changes have taken place in banking and if those changes are friendly or not to the consumers. Co-owner of Money Crashers, Andrew Schrage states that several people seem to be ditching their banks.

 He further commented that over 5.6 million Americans have closed their accounts with the big banks and among those consumers; around 214,000 had opened new accounts with a credit union. With the increase in bank fees, low interest rates accompanied with poor customer service at several of the large banking institution, people seem to be unhappy.

Schrage informs that two of the best alternatives to bank in keeping your funds in place where it could gain a return are credit unions as well as money market mutual funds. The interest rate, for instance, offered on credit union accounts are usually on the higher side than those offered by most banks, and the fees seems much lower.

Money market mutual funds also seem to be a good alternative which is an investment in short term certificates of deposit or securities. These could be in the form of Treasury bills, government bonds or corporate bonds.

Oil Sinks to Biggest Weekly Decline of 2015 after IEA Warning

Oil Dropped to Major Weekly Decline – IEA Emphasised Excess Level of Global Crude

Oil dropped to its major weekly decline of the year after International Energy Agency report emphasised the level of the global crude excess. The energy monitor - IEA, informed that low prices are taking a toll on supply. However, producers have not scrambled back to make dent in the stockpiles. For six straight sessions, oil had fallen, in registering its massive weekly percentage decline of 2015. The latest oil’s selloff that hadreduced prices by around a third since the beginning of the year has started rattling stock and debt market again.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down by 270 points recently and the Junk bonds which were also whirling from a fund’s closure had also collapsed. January delivery of U.S. oil futures had fallen by $1.14 to $35.62 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Brent, while the global benchmark had fallen by $1.80 per barrel, to $37.93 on ICE Futures Europe. Both had lost around 11% for the week, placing them down a third for the year as well as at their lowest settlement since the financial predicament.

IEA Monthly Report – World Oil-Demand Growth – To Be Relaxed

In February 2009, U.S. oil had last settled this low and Brent in December 2008 and the last time U.S. crude, had posted a six-session losing streak was in March. For Brent it was in mid-2014. In recent weeks, currency managers had abruptly moved against crude, constantly adding to bets on the falling prices. Recently the data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, indicated only 80,474 additional bets on the rising prices than the falling prices, which is said to be the smallest margin in more than five years.

The IEA, in its monthly report had indicated that the world oil-demand growth would relax to 1.2 million barrel each day towards 2016 after flowing to 1.8 million barrels per day this year since support from sharply falling oil prices had started to disappear. Unrelenting strong OPEC production together with extra Iranian oil hitting the market in the next year would increase global inventories by around 300 million barrels.

Oil Would Rebound to $65

IEA has commented that `as inventories tend to increase towards 2016, there would be a lot of oil weighing on the market’. Prices of several oil company shares had revealed the notion that oil would rebound to $65 per barrel according to managing director at investment bank Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co; Matt Portillo.

The prices together with the oil futures curve are presently below $60 per barrel all through 2024, and indication that a recovery seems very remote. Mr Portillo has informed that `it’s the slow meltdown which is being seen in the market presently’. Besides this, there also seems to be broad concerns regarding growth, particularly in emerging markets which in the earlier years had directed demand growth in raw materials.

Central bank of China had recently indicated its intention of changing the way it tends to manage the value of Yuan by loosening its peg to the dollar which could be a bad indication for oil demand in the second largest oil consumer in the world, according to senior research analyst at ClearBridge Investment, Dimitry Dayen, which manages the assets of $103.9 billion. He had commented that `if they tend to devalue their currency which is a bit of what is prevailing presently; the commodity will become more expensive locally and could drive the demand lower’.

RBI Rejects Bids at Bond Sale for Second Consecutive Week

RBI Rejects Bids at Government Bond Sale

The Reserve Bank of India rejected all the bids at its 150 billion rupee government bond sale including the benchmark 10 year debt, recently, marking the second week consecutively when it did not accept some of the bids. The RBI had only accepted 49.4 billion rupees worth of bids for its sale of 70 billion rupee of 2025 bonds and had accepted only 22.9 billion rupees of the 30 billion rupees worth of 2034 bonds that were being sold.

 The balance three bonds had been totally allotted. RBI has the option of not accepting all bids at the debt auctions through a procedure known as a `devolvement’, which tends to lead underwriting dealers to purchase some of the shortfall in undersubscribed tenders at determined cut-off yield. According to a treasurer at HDFC, Ashish Parthasarthy, he comments that `the yield may not be acceptable and they would find it too high’.The devolvement has come up when the RBI is tied up in a complicated balancing act with domestic yields in order to keep the volatility away from its bond markets ahead of the policy decision of the Federal Reserve this month.

Fourth Auction with Weak Bids/High Yields

This seems to be the fourth auction which has seen weak bids and demands at high yield levels from the market. The RBI may not have been relaxed giving a cut-off which did not reflect its accommodative monetary position, according to bond traders.

The government is scheduled to raise Rs 15,000 crore by allotting four bonds at the weekly auction. Presently the craving for bonds is quite low in the market and several investors have incurred losses after yields shot up sharply after the policy statement and are now being careful according to the managing director of ICICI Securities Primary Dealership, B. Prasanna. Government bond earnings have increased by at least 10 basis points over the last one week as an aggressive policy statement from RBI, the effects of global bond sell-off earlier in the month as well as anxieties over domestic inflation that kept several buyers at bay. The 10 year benchmark 7.72%, 2025 bond yield closed at 7.8%, up 10 bps from the earlier week. The bond has suffered losses for all investors who had bought it at the maiden auction in May.

Last Devolvement – June 12

In the policy of June, the RBI had reduced its repo rate by 25 bps, but had raised it inflation forecast to 6% for January and had commented that it has frontloaded its rate cuts. This however brought about expectations of the future rate cuts sharply down in the bond market. Moreover, the bond yields from US to Europe has also increased to multi-month highs since the investors deserted fixed income in the midst of rising oil prices as well as the forthcoming rate hike by the US Federal Reserve.

The last devolvement of RBI had been on June 12, when the sentiments seemed negative owing to high inflation reading. An official aware of the central bank’s decision in explaining the devolvement had informed that `the bids had come at much higher yields’. He had added that the central bank was also certain in not devolving in too big an amount to avoid destabilising the markets.

Free Super Bowl Ad for Small Businesses

Super Bowl Ad - A Dream with Huge Monetary Strings Attached 

For several industries, a Super Bowl ad seems to be a reserved dream having huge monetary strings attached. But each year, only a single industrialist tends to gets a free award, a 30-second Super Bowl commercial in the Small Business Big Game contest. Around 15,000 small businesses had applied in 2015, for the Small Business Big Game contest and only three finalists were left. To begin with, the field is tapered to 10 finalists through a panel of judges who tend to review each enterprise depending on numerous factors which comprise of authenticity, passion as well as an emotional connection to the public.

The ultimate three businesses tend to get selected from this collection in agreement with a popular vote. Advertising being on parity with the proper finances in order, this could be a great opportunity of enhancing a business. This event has been sponsored by Intuit QuickBooks where the grand prize spot seems to be valued at $5 million. This contest tends to draw thousands of small business, yearly, who are hopeful and tend to look forward towards new and affordable means of boosting their business and drawing new audiences.

Small Business Big Game Contest – Ideal Solution for Small Businesses 

The winner tends to get the free Super Bowls add, however, the second and the third place businesses tend to receive a $25,000 prize together with a free local media spot which is valued at $15,000. But some understanding business owners seem to know that advertising on par with thorough financial planning as well as the ultimate consolation prize is the free publicity.

 For instance, the ten judges who are the selected finalists tend to ride the free publicity wave with social media hastag in order to support them to maximize their branding. To win the competition, it does not need the biggest number of followers of social media. On the contrary, judges tend to concentrate on the passion, ability, community involvement and much more of the business.

This year’s favorite, in fact had the least amount of likes on Facebook. However, it seems active in community events as well as children’s sports leagues resulting in steadfast support of its community. Small businesses with the need of little help in reaching national audience abroad could turn to the ideal solution of the Small Business Big Game contest.

How to Prevent and Copy without Data Loss

Files/Folders/Application/Complete System – To Be Fully Protected

There could be instances in one’s life where they are faced with the fact when their external storage systems seems to fail and they tend to lose most of their valuable information and treasured images as well as important business presentation within a split of a second. It is essential to have your files, folders, application and the complete systems fully protected and safeguard the important data and the application. However, these issues of data loss could be resolved if one tends to have a backup drive and one that is in a good spot. The user needs to ensure that the backup is updated regularly.

Whenever possible, enable the system to back up itself every ten to fifteen minutes based on how one tends to work on the files. Though one may not be in a position to envisage every storage malfunction, it could get worse if the same is not enabled on a regular basis. Besides this, examine the storage system to make sure that they have a strong data recovery process which can cater to all the needs of the user. For backup and disaster recovery, user should contact a specialist who is equipped to handle the situation and provide a solution for the recovery of data and other important information. 

Recovery Software for External Hard Drive Problem

If one tends to have problem with their external hard drive, which are known to malfunction after a few years of work, but the computer seems to recognize the drive, one could use the recovery software, but if the computer does not seem to recognize the storage device the services of a specialist would be essential. The provider offers, backup and disaster recovery which tends to work with granular recovery options, systems snapshots, bare metal restores as well as full server fail over. Sometimes a server tends to crash, a virus abolishes files or it could be an outage leaving your office unavailable, when you’re prepared for it it will be easy to handle the situation with the help of a specialist.

 However with the services of the specialist, one could continue working by utilizing their local and cloud recovery functions. They tend to make it easy to recover anything which seems to be lost within minutes thus keeping the flow of work ongoing. When one tends to work frequently with important data as well as information, you should choose the appropriate system for your requirements. Ensure to back-up the system on a regular basis, paying heed to the warning signals of malfunction whenever it may arise and overcome the situation of ever facing any important data loss.

Oil Prices Tumble to Five-Year Low as OPEC Gathers in Vienna

Oil Prices Collapses to Lowest Level in Five Years

As OPEC leaders meet in Vienna to set the prices for the year ahead, oil prices have collapsed to the lowest level in five years. After the US stockpiles flowed in November, Brent crude for January delivery dropped by 3.7% to $42.77 per barrel in London. US Energy Information Administration shocked the market, which had hoped the level of oil to drop during winter, by reporting that the glut of oil in America had increased by 1.2m barrels till November 27 to reach 489.4m barrels thus approached its highest level on record.

In the meanwhile, weak inflation report from Eurozone raised the possibility of the European Central Bank launching a new round of motivation sending the dollar to its highest level over 12 years. Besides this it also weighed on the oil price as the greenback is utilised to price the product.

The oversupply of crude oil due to its strong production from the U.S. together with some of the OPEC members, has been keeping the prices over 45% less than their highs from last June. Several of the investors as well as the analysts are of the belief that the global oil surplus would shrink in the coming months as demand increases and U.S. production falls in reaction to spending cuts.

Output Level Crossed its Quota of 30M Barrel/Day

In the meanwhile, market watchers are of the opinion that world-wide crude output tends to continue exceeding the consumption. The July delivery of light sweet oil, recently feel by $1.64 to $58 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The global benchmark Brent fell $1.77 to $62.03 per barrel on ICE Future Europe.

 In its last meeting, OPEC which had opted against reducing production inspite of plunging oil prices is expected to stick to that policy. The group’s output level had already crossed it quota of 30 million barrels per day. According to government reports, the output is near multi-decade in Iraq, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the U.S. Additional Iranian crude would probably enter the market this year, if on-going negotiations with Iran would result in a lifting of sanctions.

Senior market strategist at Chicago brokerage iiTrader, Bill Baruch has stated that `Russia’s picking up production, the U.S. is picking up and there seems to be no reason why OPEC would hold back from picking up production. We could see prices below $50 by the end of this month’.

Shale-Oil Production to Rise in the Coming Years

The Chief Executive of ConocoPhillips, Ryan Lance had mentioned in a conference ahead of the OPEC meeting that U.S. shale-oil production would rise in the forthcoming years as drilling would get cheaper and more efficient. He stated that the industry had already cut the price wherein it could profitably produce shale oil by 15% on an average and by 2020; shale oil production could become 15%-20% more efficient.

In the U.S., some of the shale-oil producers state that if prices tend to stabilize above $60 a barrel, they could increase the production. Several times recently, the U.S. benchmark had traded above $60 a barrel though had not held above it. John Saucer, vice president of research and analysis at Mobius Risk Group in Houston, had stated that the `OPEC was successful in shaking out high cost inefficient guys who did not make any cash at $100 and those left were certainly leaner, meaner and more efficient’.

Prudent Suppliers of Custom Products

New businesses often enter an industry populated by well-established and respected businesses. These existing businesses already have a loyal customer base and don't need to make a first impression. If businesses like this get lazy in their packaging or customer service, though, it leaves an opening for new businesses to make their own first impression.

Strategic suppliers of custom products

Custom products are one way to make a terrific first impression on customers. Appearances aren't everything, but when packaging items, customers have been shown to pay attention to packaging. It's one of the extra flourishes that show customers you exemplify professionalism and take pride in your products.

Hang tags

Custom hang tags are among the most popular of all supplier products. These simple square pieces of paper hang on doors and prominently display in-depth information about a business. They have a large advertising space and room for graphics, too, which make them perfect for non-obtrusive advertising that can get a lot of information to the customer without seeming to bombard them with too much information at once. Many businesses use these as free hand outs to customers.

Custom address labels

Digital printing services frequently supply address labels that bring a professional and sleek look to all mail communication from a business. These addresses are clearer to read than handwritten addresses and make a great first impression on customers who order a product from a new business. Suppliers work with businesses to analyze the reputation of the business and determine what the best colors and text fonts are to represent the business.

These are just a few of the products that suppliers use to make memorable first impressions for new businesses that want to win over customers in their industry. This requires a great deal of marketing analysis, strategy, and quality printed products. If a business needs printed business cards, hang tags, and address labels, suppliers need to be readily available to collaborate on the project and reach an agreement on the best style and fonts to use for all printed products. Materials need to be high quality printed materials that make the business look professional and available to help customers. Information is king and printed products contain all the information a business might need to communicate in order to win over or retain customers. Digital printing suppliers are both marketers and businessmen themselves and know how to win over new customers.

The Chinese Yuan is Going Global

Yuan Part of Selected Basket of Currencies

According to the International Monetary Fund – IMF, the Yuan is now part of selected basket of currencies which till now included only the US dollar, the Japanese yen, the euro and the British pound. The Yuan would not generally be a part of the basket till September 2016 and this move would not be having any immediate influence on the financial markets.

This gesture seems to be a significant one and an indication that China has been progressing faster and further on the global financial stage. It has been predicted by Nomura Securities that by 2030, the Yuan would become one of the highest three major international currencies, `a peer to the US dollar as well as the euro, as the most used currencies in the world’.

However, it all depends on whether China tends to continue its financial reforms which have been one of the major reasons of the IMF’s verdict of including the Yuan in this choice basket currency. The IMF has informed that` the decision was an important milestone in the integration of the Chinese economy in the global financial system’. It would bring a more robust international monetary as well as financial system.

China – Important to the Global Financial System

Nomura has informed that though the share of yuan’s trading volumes in the international currency market tends to be small, less than 2% comparative to China’s share of global gross domestic product, its daily trading volume had tripled between 2010 and 2014 from $34bn to $120bn. This indicates that there is a lot more yuan on the markets.

For the last few years, China had been working towards this and it is amazing that their extremely managed currency seems fit to enter this special basket of freely traded currencies. Beijing considers the inclusion of the yuan as an indication of how important China has become to the global financial system.

The world’s second largest economy had to push through numerous changes in recent times inclusive of enabling foreign investors in accessing its stock markets, to make this happen. The main determinant as to whether the yuan gets to the next step will depend on how transparent China would be about the way it tends to run its financial market.

Chinese Official under Pressure/Scrutiny

Considering the slowing economic growth in China, analysts have accepted that there have been some disturbing signs which the government is trying to either roll back on some the key financial changes or that those in charge may not know what they are doing. The point is that earlier this year, the effective devaluation of the year had taken the markets by surprise and the People’s Bank of China was disapproved for mishandling the communication around how the events had unfolded.

Chinese officials are now under more pressure as well as scrutiny in getting their message right. Moreover the world would also be watching to see what type of influence more yuan would have in circulating in the international markets. Should the yuan tend to be a fixture of the global economy, there is a possibility that the rest of the world would become even more exposed to what Beijing does, which will make it more important that the leaders of China push through meaningful financial changes.