ECONOMICS REPORT - Changes in the Credit Card Industry

ECONOMICS¹ REPORT - Changes in the Credit² Card Industry
By Mario Ritter

Broadcast: Friday, July 08, 2005

I'm Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English Economics Report.

 
 
The credit card was a revolutionary idea. Today, a small plastic card lets people charge purchases in millions of places. The sellers³ get paid through an electronic system of banks. The buyers get a monthly⁴ statement to pay off. They can buy now and pay later.

The credit card industry is changing all the time.

On June thirtieth, Bank of America announced it would buy MBNA, the nation's biggest independent provider of credit cards. Bank of America will have twenty percent of the credit card market in the United States. The deal was valued at about thirty-five thousand million dollars.

Bank of America is the second-biggest bank in the country after Citigroup. Bank of America will cut six thousand jobs to reduce costs.

MBNA had negotiated⁵ with another bank, Wachovia. In fact, on June seventeenth, a helicopter carrying top MBNA officials from secret talks in New York crashed in the East River. All survived, but not hopes for a deal. Wachovia lost interest.

The first widely used credit cards did not use the bank system most commonly used today. Diners Club started in nineteen fifty. American Express issued its first charge card in nineteen fifty-eight.

That same year, Bank of America offered BankAmericards to sixty thousand people in Fresno, California. BankAmericard grew into the huge system known today as Visa.

Most American families have at least one credit card. The Federal⁶ Reserve, the central bank, says Americans have more than seven hundred thousand million dollars in credit card debt. They pay an average interest rate per year of about twelve to fourteen percent.

Some card users⁷ pay all their charges each month, so they do not owe interest. Others make only the small payment⁸ required. If they owe thousands of dollars, the debt can take years to pay off.

And that is not the only danger. Information security⁹ and identity¹⁰ theft are major issues these days. Recently there have been several incidents in which many people had financial information either lost or stolen.

Someone stole records from the computers of CardSystems Solutions, a payment processing company. That incident put forty million Visa, MasterCard and other card numbers at risk of misuse¹¹.

This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter.  I'm Doug Johnson.

1 economics   

n.经济学，经济情况

参考例句：

• He is studying economics,which subject is very important.他正在学习经济学，该学科是很重要的。
• One can't separate politics from economics.不能把政治与经济割裂开来。

2 credit   

n.信用，荣誉，贷款，学分；v.归功于，赞颂，信任

参考例句：

• I credit him with a certain amount of sense.我认为他有一定的见识。
• He got the credit,and we did the dirty work.他得荣誉，我们做不讨好的工作。

3 sellers   

n.卖者( seller的名词复数 )；卖方；销售者；销售商

参考例句：

• buyers and sellers transacting business 进行交易的买方和卖方
• All manner of hawkers and street sellers were plying their trade. 形形色色的沿街小贩都在做着自己的买卖。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 monthly   

adj.每月的，持续一个月的，每月发生的；adv.每月，按月； n.月刊；(复数）monthlies:月经

参考例句：

• The rent on his apartment was his biggest monthly expense.他的房租是每个月最大的开支。
• The monthly rent is $15,inclusive of light and water.每月租金15美元，包括水电费在内。

5 negotiated   

谈判，协商，议定( negotiate的过去式和过去分词 )； 兑现（支票等）； 通过，越过（险要路段）

参考例句：

• The government negotiated with the opposition party over the new law. 政府就新法与反对党进行了协商。
• By careful strategy she negotiated a substantial pay rise. 她精心策划后，谈妥了大幅增加工资的事。

6 federal   

adj.联盟的；联邦的；(美国)联邦政府的

参考例句：

• Switzerland is a federal republic.瑞士是一个联邦共和国。
• The schools are screaming for federal aid.那些学校强烈要求联邦政府的援助。

7 users   

用户，使用者( user的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The new software will prove a boon to Internet users. 这种新软件将会对互联网用户大有益处。
• Ramps should be provided for wheelchair users. 应该给轮椅使用者提供坡道。

8 payment   

n.付款，支付，偿还，偿还，报应

参考例句：

• I gave ten pounds in payment for the goods I bought.我买那些东西付了10英镑。
• This last payment will wipe out your debt to me.这最后一笔付款将了结你欠我的债务。

9 security   

n.安全，安全感；防护措施；保证(金)，抵押(品)；债券，证券

参考例句：

• A security guard brought him down with a flying tackle.一名保安人员飞身把他抱倒。
• There was tight security at the airport when the President's plane landed.总统的专机降落时，机场的保安措施很严密。

10 identity   

n.身份，本体，特征；同一(性)，一致

参考例句：

• He never revealed his identity.他从未暴露过自己的身份。
• He showed his identity card and went in.他把工作证亮了一下就进去了。

11 misuse   

n.误用，滥用；vt.误用，滥用

参考例句：

• It disturbs me profoundly that you so misuse your talents.你如此滥用自己的才能，使我深感不安。
• He was sacked for computer misuse.他因滥用计算机而被解雇了。