The Internet is providing what users want in banking, stock
trading and other financial services: the fast, convenient movement of
information. What's faster than a mouse click from a desktop in the spare
bedroom? Oct. 16, 1999 The Full Story
Internet experts talk about ''Web years,'' which are sort
of the opposite of ''dog years.'' While a dog year is said to be equal to
several human years, a Web year is said to be equal to three months in human
time. The market development of on-line banking is proceeding at the hyperspeed
pace of Web time. Oct. 16, 1999 The Full Story
ConSors Discount Broker of Nuremberg processed more on-line
trades in the first half of this year than it did in the entire year of 1998.
The Swiss stock exchange SWX in Zurich reports that in June, more than 100,000
trades originated with discount brokers, a marked increase over February, when
10,000 trades were initiated by discount brokers. Oct. 16, 1999 The Full Story
Japan is taking its first major stride toward introducing
on-line investing to individual consumers, partially as a result of a new set of
rules that allow for massive cuts in brokerage commissions. Oct. 16, 1999 The Full Story
People chattering away on mobile phones in restaurants and
on street corners is hardly new. What is new in Japan is seeing people peering
intently at mobile phone displays, laboriously punching the keypads and then
peering some more. People still use their cellphones for chatting, of course,
but they are increasingly becoming tools for checking stock market news,
transferring money and ordering concert tickets. Oct. 16, 1999 The Full Story
According to Frank Lallos, senior analyst, financial
services for Gomez Advisors Inc., an Internet strategy research consultancy,
''The insurance industry today is like that of discount brokerages a couple of
years ago. Many brokers were reluctant to move from the phone to the Web at that
time.'' Oct. 16, 1999 The Full Story
The U.S. mint may proclaim ''In God we trust'' on every
U.S. dollar bill, but that is not enough of a guarantee for businesses
conducting transactions via the Internet. Trust needs to be established more
concretely in cyberspace because parties to a transaction, in the absence of
some other form of assurance, have no way of knowing the true identity of their
business counterparts or whether their messages may have been intercepted or
altered during transmission. Oct. 16, 1999 The Full Story
Abandoned shopping carts are cluttering the Web, according
to a February 1999 report from Jupiter Communications Inc. The report found that
27 percent of on-line buyers abandon orders before checkout. Because of a lack
of standards, the data formats used in these forms vary considerably from one
merchant to another. Consumers find the diversity confusing and the process of
manually filling in these forms tedious. Oct. 16, 1999 The Full Story
Efforts are being undertaken to streamline import and
export administration, which eats up around 7 percent of the $6 trillion worth
of international trade each year, according to the United Nations. A new
initiative, Bolero, is intended to help reduce that paper-laden overhead. Oct. 16, 1999 The Full Story
In the final days of Telecom 99, the future of the show and
of its organizer, the International Telecommunication Union, are being debated
by an advisory panel created by its secretary-general, Yoshio Utsumi. Oct. 16, 1999 The Full Story