Todays News: Smart Credit Cards Arrive in U.S., Senate Fights over Financial Regulation and Gold May Drop in Price
While new technology has arrived to the United States that promises to make credit cards more secure, the Senate is fighting over a broader form of banking security for consumers. In the meantime, some say that investment dollars may stretch a little further if gold prices drop as predicted.
Smart Credit Cards Arrive in U.S.
Credit cards in the U.S. have been considered outdated in Europe, Canada, the Caribbean and other parts of the world for some time since ours use less-secure magnetic stripe technology. However, it appears that we may be moving up to speed with smartcard technology that reached its first U.S. bank last week.
The United Nations Federal Credit Union (UNFCU) unveiled plans to issue credit cards that comply with the Europay MasterCard Visa (EMV) smartcard standard. Being issued to about 5,000 of its most high-value customers, the cards will use an embedded microprocessor instead of a magnetic strip to store cardholder data. (Business Week)
Senate Fights over Financial Regulation
As the Senate moves closer to voting on the financial regulation overhaul bill, the fight over banning banks from trading derivatives is getting heated. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) wants to force banks to spin off their derivatives trading operations into affiliates while Senate Banking Committee Head Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) wants to suspend the ban.
This conflict is predicted to set up a fight on the Senate floor only days before a vote on the entire banking bill is due to take place. (Wall Street Journal)
Barclays Predicts Gold May Drop in Price
While gold prices have increased in the past two weeks, it seems that Barclays Wealth in London sees a different future for this hot investment. It predicts that gold will fall to a fair value of $800 an ounce by 2012, while Societe Generale in France predicts that this drop will occur as soon as the end of 2010. They both predict the drop will occur as a result of investors deciding to dump it and move on to riskier trades. (CNN Money)
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