| Watchdog stresses on self-regulation by mutual funds
Indian mutual funds do not entirely deserve the self-praise they have been indulging in and must look at other options to grow than rely on inflows from companies, the markets watchdog chief said on Wednesday. "The mutual fund industry seems to be prematurely patting itself on the back," M Damodaran, chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), said at a seminar organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Mumbai. "The question is: Who has made what sort of growth? The numbers provoke more questions than provide answers," Damodaran said, adding that large investments by corporate houses in mutual funds could generate conflict of interest. On the issue of self-regulation in the industry, Damodaran said the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Asmfi) had been resisting attempts to become such an organisation.
Fifth Third Processing Solutions Earns Visa(R) Service Quality Award
CINCINNATI, June 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- For the 12th consecutive year, Visa has awarded Fifth Third Processing Solutions one of its prestigious Visa Service Quality Performance Awards. Based on exceptional card operations performance demonstrated in calendar year 2006, Fifth Third earned top honors for Lowest Chargeback-to-Sales Ratio. The Lowest Chargeback-to-Sales Ratio category reflects an acquirer's ability to effectively educate its merchant customers on Visa's acceptance procedures designed to ensure that transactions are properly processed at the point of sale. Acquirers who educate and monitor their merchants help reduce unnecessary and costly chargebacks and improve performance in this important customer service area. "Given the challenges of the current economic and competitive landscape to the payment service industry, service quality is more important than ever," said Bruce McElhinney, executive vice president, Visa USA Client Services.
Enter The Middleman
E-merchants have long taken advantage of the efficiency of services such as PayPal to help them turn casual surfers into shoppers. But by adding more than one online payment option to their Websites, companies can convert one-time visitors into repeat customers. This means doing a little bit of homework to get the right combination of payment methods that suit your business needs.
"If you're willing to do the research, finding online payment options isn't a technical task anymore," says Joe Thompson, 28, a computer software specialist. Thompson launched his online payment services company, Thompson Merchant Services Inc. (www.thompsonmerchant.com) in December 2002 after a short stint as an applications engineer at GO Software, (a company now owned by electronic payment technology giant VeriFone).
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