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The financial industry will invest about $9 billion to prepare for computer problems related to the year 2000 computer date transition (Y2K) issue. Its diligence on the Y2K matter makes it one of the best-prepared industries worldwide. However, although US financial institutions have dealt effectively with the in-house challenges relating to Y2K compliance, they must increasingly shift their attention to external Y2K-related issues which are largely beyond their control. For instance, banks with foreign operations will need to scrutinize overseas transactions and foreign counter-parties since many nations lag behind the US in terms of Y2K compliance. Y2K-related representations and initiatives must be positioned in a manner that will reduce the potential for litigation.

National economic indicators play a foundational role in political economic research, particularly in regards to electoral politics. Yet, scholars have failed to recognize that national economic indicators are simply aggregations of local economic information, and the manner in which they are aggregated may not be consistent with the process voters use to acquire, access, and incorporate economic information. We argue that the economic similarities among localities, and the way in which the media report on these similarities, provide more theoretically satisfying means of specifying how local information aggregates into an overall portrait of the national economy. We introduce a novel estimation procedure called the spatial-X ordered logit that offers the chance to model how voters’ evaluations respond to changes in contextualized economic information. Our results support our theory that voters incorporate economic information from other localities with similarly structured economies and in ways that are shaped by media messages. Furthermore, these two specifications offer greater explanatory power than national indicators and other geographical means of aggregating economic information. We conclude by offering a number of implications for research questions ranging from electoral accountability to spatial diffusion processes.

Reports on the rate of customer acceptance of fingerprint authentication in Chile, according to Banco Falabella, as of November 2004. Factors that drives the practice of fingerprint authentication in the country; Benefits of fingertip authentication to banks; Challenges faced by the bank.

Presents a series of innovations in retail payments that could evolve into threats and opportunities for financial institutions. Person-to-person payments; Online authentication; Examples of consumer accounts; Possibilities identified by Rene Pelegero, former director of global payments at Amazon.com, in terms of lack of control of financial institutions over consumer accounts.

Reveals that the financial community's mindset in the U.S. focuses too much on risk and not enough on opportunity and financial institutions might miss an opportunity in the unbanked market, according to Chuck Bruney, executive vice president of Atlanta, Georgia-based Speer & Associates Inc. Reason reaching out to unbanked market makes sense; Factors that correlates best with membership in the unbanked; Basic services that unbanked wants.

Focuses on Great Britain-based Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC. Strategy behind the 17% growth of the group between 1992 and 1999; Actions taken by the bank to achieve the growth in the financial performance; Information on the leadership style of Sir George Mathewson, chairman of Royal Bank.