STATS

STATS

From the Editor: This first stat is a fact in response to questions I often receive that start out with "I Don't Know What The Legal Age Is In My State, But Can A Customer........?"

The legal, adult age is 18 years in most states, 19 in Alabama and Nebraska, and 21 in Mississippi.
A survey by Fundtech Ltd. of 135 banking executives representing 72 financial institutions in the United States reported that 61% of them said the new Sarbanes-Oxley regulation has vastly changed their operating procedures.
www.fundtech.com, July 13, 2005
Other results from the same survey: When asked to specify the most significant business challenge: 30% said "compliance"; 20% said "growth"; and 11% said "cost reduction". The response for how often internal compliance audits were done in their financial institution: 69% said 1 to 2 times a year; 28% said 3 or more times a year. 64% said that wire initiation is the service that generates the highest revenue for their bank, when compared to other typical treasury management services such as "positive pay", "ACH" and "stop payment."
Ibid.
Thousands of merchants and some 500 payment processing companies will handle 44 billion transactions in the United States this year.
New York Times, June 30, 2005, Weakness in the Data Chain
The average fee an ATM user pays for using another institution's ATM reached $1.35 this year.
www.Bankrate.com
72% of consumers under 40 years of age are more likely to research, monitor, and manage finances online compared to only 37% of online consumers over that age.
Business Wire, Forrester Research and Flamingo International Survey, April, 2005ATMMarketplace.com
61% of over 2,600 respondents conduct bank account research primarily online, while 73% use the Internet as their primary way to research investments, but over 53% prefer applying for mortgages and insurance policies "in-person."
Ibid.