STATS

• Treasury says the $100 bill will be redesigned, but the $1 and $2 bills will not. No decision has been made about the $5 bill.U.S. Treasury, Bureau of Engraving and Printing
• There is nearly $700 billion in U.S. currency worldwide - only one third of it in the United States.Ibid.
• About 1 (one) in 25,000 $50 bills is a counterfeit. In the last ten years digitally produced counterfeits have increased from 1% of all counterfeits detected in the U.S. to 40%Ibid.
• In 2004, the top consumer complaint (for the 5th year in a row) was identity theft. It accounted for 246,000 (39%) of consumer fraud complaints filed with the FTC.National & State Trends in Fraud and Identity Theft, Federal Trade Commission, 2/05
• Adults received 3.2 gift cards during the 2004 holiday season, compared to 2.5 in 2003. The 3.2 cards' total face value was about $143. 61% of the cards had been redeemed by the end of January, 2005.Deloitte & Touche USA LLP Survey, 2/10/05
• MasterCard International says it has issued over 200 million MasterCard, Maestro and Cirrus smart cards globally. 40% of those smart cards carry a global EMV chip, usable at chip-enabled terminals.
  Business Wire
• Electronic payments surpassed check transactions last year for the first time. Visa also reported three billion transactions were recorded last year for purchases less than $5.Federal Reserve/CNN/Reuters, 3/13/05

Editors Note: In Vol.XV, No. 1, a stat stated "All financial institutions must now be in compliance with the FACT Act or face an $11,000 fine per violation." with a Regulation fact as source. We picked that up from an article by a writer who is now unable to credit the $11,000 figure. We apologize for the error.

Copyright © 2005 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 15, No. 2, 4/05