Friday, October 9, 2009

“Commerce Online Announces $500,000 In New Merchant Services Accounts ... - Biloxi Sun Herald” plus 4 more

“Commerce Online Announces $500,000 In New Merchant Services Accounts ... - Biloxi Sun Herald” plus 4 more

Commerce Online Announces $500,000 In New Merchant Services Accounts ... - Biloxi Sun Herald

Posted: 09 Oct 2009 08:20 AM PDT

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 -Company exceeds expectations for new accounts in merchant services and moves forward with independent ISO roll up strategy

PALM BEACH, FL, Oct. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Commerce Online Inc. (Pinksheets:CMIB - News) (www.800commerce.com), a leading company specializing in both bricks and mortar and online merchant payment solutions, today announced that the Company has exceeded expectations by signing approximately $500,000 in new merchant services business.

"As a new player within the sector, we have strategically aligned our Company with some of the most respected merchant solutions partners and banks in the country. This has allowed us to move our business forward aggressively to grow our client list through superior service and support, competitive pricing, new product offerings and veteran management. We have taken a different approach at Commerce Online, seeking out niches within the processing industry other than the standard model of mom and pop shops and volume business. Although we are more than willing to handle those accounts, are goal is to sign merchant services agreements with national brands, high volume online businesses, government municipalities and mobile entertainment which we believe to be high volume and low maintenance accounts, while also pursuing an aggressive independent ISO roll up strategy through our banking partners," stated Michael Friedman, founder of Commerce Online Inc.

About Commerce Online Inc.

Commerce Online Inc. (www.800commerce.com) is positioned to become a market leader in both online and wireless merchant payment solutions. The Company offers a full spectrum of secure and reliable transaction processing solutions using traditional, Internet Point-of-Sale (POS), e-commerce and mobile (wireless) terminals in conjunction with Industry Alliance Partners. The Company's Alliances provide electronic payment processing suite of services enabling merchants to accept all major credit and debit cards, as well as ATM cards and ACH check drafts for payment whether a retail, service, mail-order or Internet merchant. As an industry leader, Commerce Online is dedicated to delivering comprehensive services, such as merchant account activation, gateway connections, Web development and social network engines to a worldwide client base. Commerce Online is a registered ISO with Direct Technologies Inc., a registered ISO of First National Bank of Omaha, Omaha, NE and Wells Fargo Bank, NA., Walnut Creek, Ca.

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Wall Street Drifts Higher After Trade Report - New York Times

Posted: 09 Oct 2009 08:20 AM PDT

Shares drifted higher Friday after the government issued a mixed trade report.

The Commerce Department said the trade deficit declined 3.5 percent to $30.7 billion in August, as imports fell on lower oil demand. Economists expected the deficit to rise to $33 billion, or 3.3 percent, from July's level, which was the highest in six months.

Exports of goods and services edged up 0.2 percent, an encouraging sign that the global economy is strengthening. But the decline in imports shows that domestic consumption is still weak.

Investors were also keeping a close watch on the dollar Friday, which recovered some of its recent losses after the Federal Reserve's chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, reassured markets that the central bank would be able to wind down in its extraordinary stimulus measures when the time is right. His comments Thursday night calmed some of investors' fears about inflation, which can be triggered by a falling dollar. The rebound in the dollar weighed on oil, gold and other commodities.

At mid-day, the Dow Jones industrial average was 35 points or 0.3 percent higher. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index was up 0.2 percent higher, and the Nasdaq rose 0.4 percent.

European markets sputtered on Friday, after Chinese shares rallied hard as traders returned to their desks following a weeklong holiday. In afternoon trading, the three major exchanges in Europe — in London, Paris and Frankfurt — were all a few points lower.

The slow start comes at the end of a solid week for stocks, in which the market's seven-month rally was put firmly back on track after two down weeks. Going into Friday, the Dow is up 300 points, or 3.2 percent, for the week. Standard & Poor's 500-stock index is up 3.9 percent.

Investors have cheered more signs that the economy is healing, including growth in the service sector, a surprisingly good profit report from the aluminum maker Alcoa and the first gain in retail sales in over a year.

But with earnings season just getting under way, the market probably faces a bumpy few weeks. Major financial companies, one potential trouble spot for the market, report next week. Investors, having sent the S.&P. 500 index up 57.5 percent since March, are looking for reassurance from companies that the economy is growing.

"The market has factored in good earnings and the market has actually discounted good guidance as well," said Jim Herrick, director of equity trading, Baird & Company. "So if we don't see that, the market will retrace."

Earlier in China, the Shanghai's main index climbed 132.29 points, or 4.8 percent, to 2,911.72, easily making the index the best performing in Asia.

Elsewhere, Japan's Nikkei index added 183.92 points, or 1.9 percent, to 10,016.39 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 6.54 points, or less than 0.1 percent, at 21,499.44.

The dollar rose 0.4 percent to 88.70 yen while the euro fell 0.2 percent, to $1.4721.

The American currency recovered somewhat from recent losses after Mr. Bernanke's comments about the need for a careful exit strategy from the extraordinary monetary measures the central bank has taken over the last year or two.

Though Mr. Bernanke said accommodative policies would probably be "warranted for an extended period," he said "we will need to tighten monetary policy to prevent the emergence of an inflation problem down the road."

Once the Fed starts raising rates, then investors will get a better return on the dollar. As a result, expectations that they may rise sooner than previously anticipated helped support the United States dollar, which has been languishing near year-lows against the euro and the yen amid concerns about its future status as the world's leading reserve currency.

Jane Foley, research director at Forex.com, said Mr. Bernanke "did little more than state the obvious," but the fact he said it was enough to excite currency markets.



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Stocks edge higher, add to week's big gains - Arlington Heights Daily Herald

Posted: 09 Oct 2009 08:34 AM PDT

NEW YORK -- Stocks edged higher Friday, adding to the week's big gains after the government issued a mixed trade report.

The Commerce Department said the trade deficit declined 3.5 percent to $30.7 billion in August, as imports fell on lower oil demand. Economists expected the deficit to rise to $33 billion, or 3.3 percent from July's level, which was the highest in six months.

Exports of goods and services edged up 0.2 percent, an encouraging sign that the global economy is strengthening. But the decline in imports shows that domestic consumption is still weak.

Investors were also keeping a close watch on the dollar Friday, which recovered some of its recent losses after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke reassured markets that the U.S. central bank will be able to wind down in its extraordinary stimulus measures when the time is right. His comments Thursday night calmed some of investors' fears about inflation, which can be triggered by a falling dollar.

The market's seven-month rally was put firmly back on track this week after two down weeks. Going into Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average is up 300 points, or 3.2 percent, for the week. The benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index is up 3.9 percent.

In early trading, the Dow rose 24.79, or 0.3 percent, to 9,811.66. The Standard & Poor's 500 index added 2.08, or 0.2 percent, to 1,067.56, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 9.08, or 0.4 percent, to 2,133.01.

About seven stocks rose for every six that fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 145 million shares, compared with 167.9 million at the same time the day before.

Investors have cheered more signs this week that the economy is healing, including growth in the service sector, a surprisingly good profit report from aluminum maker Alcoa Inc. and the first gain in retail sales in over a year.

But with earnings season just getting under way, the market likely faces a bumpy few weeks. Major financial companies, one potential trouble spot for the market, report next week. Investors, having sent the S&P 500 index up 57.5 percent since March, are looking for reassurance from companies that the economy is growing.

"The market has factored in good earnings and the market has actually discounted good guidance as well," said Jim Herrick, director of equity trading, Baird & Co. "So if we don't see that, the market will retrace."

The ICE Futures U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against other currencies, rose 0.5 percent in early trading.

Record low interest rates and massive government spending have weakened the dollar considerably this year, sending the dollar index down nearly 15 percent since early March when the stock market's rally began.

The weak dollar has been a boon to stocks and commodities as investors go in search of higher yielding assets. The drop in the dollar also boosts corporate profits by making U.S. goods cheaper to overseas buyers.

Though the Fed has said it will keep interest rates low for some time, Bernanke's comments Thursday raised expectations that the central bank may hike rates sooner than anticipated to support the dollar.

Australia surprised global markets earlier this week by becoming the first major economy to raise interest rates this year, a sign the country is more confident about its economic prospects. On Thursday, both the European Central Bank and the Bank of England left their interest rates unchanged.

Oil prices added 32 cents to $72.02 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold prices slipped after touching a fresh high of $1,062.70 on Thursday.

Bond prices extended their losses from Thursday. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.33 percent from 3.25 percent late Thursday.

In other trading, the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 2.90, or 0.5 percent, to 610.65.

Overseas, trading was mixed. Shanghai's main index climbed 4.8 percent, while Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 1.9 percent. In afternoon trading, Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.1 percent, Germany's DAX index dipped 0.03 percent and France's CAC-40 fell 0.2 percent.



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Prosecution of UBS Informant Said to Backfire on US - CNBC

Posted: 09 Oct 2009 07:37 AM PDT

The key informant in the U.S. tax evasion case against Swiss bank UBS faces prison next year, but his harsher-than-expected treatment by the U.S. Justice Department will undermine efforts to expose secretive offshore tax havens, lawyers and whistle-blower advocates say.

Bradley Birkenfeld, a 44-year-old U.S. citizen, has been hailed by his attorneys and prosecutors alike as pivotal to the tax case against UBS [UBS Loading... () ], his former employer.

The case centered on UBS's private banking business and on wealthy Americans who used their Swiss accounts to hide money overseas to evade taxes. In August, UBS agreed to turn over 4,450 names of American clients with undisclosed offshore accounts to settle a civil suit by the U.S. government.

By coming forward in the summer of 2007 and volunteering insider information to the Justice Department, Birkenfeld exposed a "massive fraud scheme" that probably never would have been discovered otherwise, said Kevin Downing, a senior Justice Department trial lawyer who spoke at his sentencing in Fort Lauderdale on Aug. 21.

Despite that praise, Birkenfeld, who pleaded guilty to a single fraud conspiracy count in June 2008 for helping a billionaire hide assets from the Internal Revenue Service, was sentenced to 40 months in prison and ordered to start serving his time no later than Jan. 8.

Justice Department officials, in a claim disputed by Birkenfeld's supporters, said the punishment was meted out because Birkenfeld had initially sought to conceal his personal involvement in tax fraud.

Lawyers and whistle-blower advocates have expressed outrage over the sentence. They said they had expected Birkenfeld to get off with just a fine and probation, given that his voluntary disclosure of UBS practices led the company to settle criminal charges by paying $780 million and promising to name thousands of suspected American tax cheats and exit the U.S. tax-shelter business.

"By prosecuting Brad, it is going to greatly harm IRS efforts to encourage future whistle-blowers," said Birkenfeld lawyer Dean Zerbe, former tax counsel for the Senate Finance Committee.

"The only people that are benefiting from sending Brad to jail are the Swiss bankers and their clients," he added.

'Terrible Message' To Whistleblowers

Zerbe is pressing for Birkenfeld's formal recognition under an IRS whistle-blower program and says his client could still collect millions of dollars for his cooperation from the government.

"There is no question that Brad is the most important tax whistle-blower ever," said Zerbe, who helped write a 2006 law that boosted rewards for those giving key information in tax cases involving evasion of $2 million or more.

Birkenfeld's sentencing was originally set for Aug. 15, 2008, but was delayed three times as the Justice Department, citing his cooperation in the UBS investigation, called for more time to advance its ongoing probe.

Zerbe, however, said the Justice Department stopped seeking any information more than a year ago and had left Birkenfeld hanging in legal limbo ever since.

"June 10, 2008 is the last time that DOJ asked Birkenfeld any questions regarding UBS, Swiss private banking or his former U.S. clients with UBS," said Zerbe.

Also on CNBC.com:

The Justice Department has no comment on Birkenfeld or on its dealings with Martin Liechti, a senior UBS executive who was detained in Florida in 2008, spokesman Charles Miller said.

Liechti, who has since left UBS, was identified by Birkenfeld as a mastermind of its offshore banking business in the United States. He was inexplicably set free, despite the crimes he is alleged to have committed on U.S. soil.

Miller would not say whether Liechti or other UBS bankers had been granted immunity.

"This sends a terrible message to potential whistle-blowers," said Jesselyn Radack, a former Justice Department lawyer who now works with the Government Accountability Project, a Washington-based whistle-blower advocacy group.

"The only person going to jail in this case is the whistle-blower," Radack added, saying "the major bad actors" in the UBS case had all gone free.

"The fact that they would grant someone from Switzerland immunity and not a U.S. citizen who brought them the entire case on a silver platter, tied up with a bow with a cherry on top ... I just don't get it," Radack said.

Highlighting negative fallout from the UBS case, Radack said she knew of at least three potential financial whistle-blowers who had decided against coming forward this month alone, because of what happened to Birkenfeld.

"The message being sent to whistle-blowers is stay home and be quiet," she said. "If Mr. Birkenfeld had stayed in Switzerland and not given the Department of Justice the keys of the kingdom, he would still be living his life today a free man."



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Salisbury Bancorp, Inc. Announces Third Quarter Dividend - Biloxi Sun Herald

Posted: 09 Oct 2009 07:22 AM PDT

LAKEVILLE, Conn., Oct. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Board of Directors of Salisbury Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE AMEX: SAL), the holding company for Salisbury Bank and Trust Company, declared a $.28 per common share quarterly cash dividend at their October 9, 2009 meeting. The dividend will be paid on November 6, 2009 to shareholders of record as of October 23, 2009.

Salisbury Bancorp's sole subsidiary, Salisbury Bank and Trust Company, is a community bank. The Company has assets in excess of $560 million and capital in excess of $50 million and has served the communities of northwestern Connecticut and proximate communities in New York and Massachusetts for approximately 160 years. Salisbury Bank and Trust Company is headquartered in Lakeville, Connecticut, and in addition to the main office, operates full service branches in Canaan, Salisbury and Sharon, Connecticut, South Egremont and Sheffield, Massachusetts and Dover Plains, New York. The Bank offers a full complement of consumer and business banking products and services as well as trust and investment services.

Statements contained in this news release contain forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on the beliefs and expectations of management as well as the assumptions made using information currently available to management. Since these statements reflect the views of management concerning future events, these statements involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including among others: changes in market interest rates and general and regional economic conditions; changes in government regulations; changes in accounting principles; and the quality or composition of the loan and investment portfolios and other factors that may be described in the Company's quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and its annual report on Form 10-K, each filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available at the Securities and Exchange Commission's internet website (www.sec.gov) and to which reference is hereby made. Therefore, actual future results may differ significantly from results discussed in the forward looking statements.



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