EBT, the use of debit card technology to distribute nutrition benefits, such as those formerly called food stamps, dates to 1985. There were 3 principal reasons behind the launch of EBT or Electronic Benefits Transfer. They were the mitigation of fraud and abuse in the food stamp program as well as ...
1:55 PM
Has the Community Reinvestment Act outlived its usefulness in the 21st century
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Bob Bucceri,
in
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Has the more-than-40-year-old Community Reinvestment Act outlived its usefulness. Congress authorized the CRA in 1977, at a time when the banking landscape was far different than it is today.An article in the December 3, 2018 American Banker by Diego Zuluage of the Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary...
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p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px} The first rule of business that I learned in a thirty year career was that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.The Democrat party...
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At last month’s EBT-The Next Generation conference, sponsored by the Electronic Government Payments Council, I was honored along with my colleague, John Pfeuffer of Conduent State and Local Solutions to present the Council’s 2018 Leadership Award to Art Burger, the President and CEO of Burger...
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The War on PovertyAn opinion piece in the October 11 Wall Street Journal entitled “Government Can’t Rescue the Poor” authored by Phil Gramm and John F. Early traced the effectiveness of the so-called War on Poverty from its inception in the mid-1960s to the current day.Messrs Gramm and Early state that...
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Disrupting EBTThe world of technology is undergoing unprecedented disruption across multiple industries and has not only changed the ways we have traditionally conducted business, but how we look at business as well. From Airbnb to Amazon, from Uber to Zelle, technology and creative thinking have...
12:45 PM
Families who receive benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps) use fewer discount coupons and allot more money for spending on food than they would without assistance, according to a soon-to-be-released study
by
Bob Bucceri,
in
New
Families who receive benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps) use fewer discount coupons and allot more money for spending on food than they would without assistance, according to a forthcoming study by Justine Hastings and Jesse Shapiro, professors...
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There have been many efforts to add mobile delivery of EBT services to a payment system which up to now has exclusively offered over-the-counter delivery of benefits. As with any payment system, a mobile dimension added a new layer of security concerns. The EBT Mobile Security Working Group of...
1:03 PM
USDA uses "common-sense flexibility" in authorizing the purchase of hot and prepared foods by SNAP beneficiaries who were victims of Hurricane Florence
by
Bob Bucceri,
in
New
The deprivation and pain caused by the recent Hurricane Florence flooding almost exceeds our ability to comprehend.One group that has comprehended it and is doing something about it is the Food and Nutrition Service of USDA. FNS runs an assortment of food programs that include SNAP (formerly known as...
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States because of their proximity to people served have the ability to act as incubators of proposed public policy.This is the case when tackling the thorny issue of fraud in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps).The federal agency charged with managing SNAP,...
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On September 12, Apple will launch its new iPhone. A survey by the personal finance website, WalletHub, released today shows that some 28 million people think that getting one of the new iPhones is worth going into debt for.Millennials were 5 times more likely to agree that possessing the new iPhone...
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EBT-The Perfect Public-Private PartnershipI recently had the opportunity to attend the semi-annual meeting of the eGovernment Payments Council in Washington.Among the Council’s work at the meeting were the following tasks. 1 A review by several government-relations analysts of legislative and regulatory...
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When the old (farmers markets) meets the new (electronic commerce) something has to give. Recently, a major supplier of mobile EBT technology (which allows farmers markets to accept SNAP EBT cards as a payment for for food covered by the SNAP program informed the federal government that it will no longer...
2:35 PM
The Relationship between Local Community Banking and Small Business Lending
by
Bob Bucceri,
in
New
The Relationship between Local Community Banking and Small Business LendingThe Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has recently published a working paper on the importance of local community banks to small business lending.The paper looks at the effect that a reduction in community banking can have...
2:48 PM
The Financial Industry can do more to help elders avoid becoming victims of financial fraud
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Bob Bucceri,
in
New
The Financial Industry can do more to help elders avoid becoming victims of financial fraud.Combining Forces to Combat Elder Financial Victimization, a discussion paper recently released by the Payment Card Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, provided a roadmap of what consumers and...
1:08 PM
Social services beneficiaries in California are being advised that their EBT cards may not work for a 24-hour period in late June, because of a planned service interruption in order to work on the system.
by
Bob Bucceri,
in
New
Social services beneficiaries in California are being advised that their EBT cards may not work for a 24-hour period in late June, because of a planned service interruption in order to work on the system.California counties are advising beneficiaries of the CalFresh and CalWorks programs to prepare...
1:13 PM
A smart device app solution for merchant processing of government nutrition payments, such as WIC.
by
Bob Bucceri,
in
New
Nova Dia Group, a Texas-based developer of mobile-payment solutions, has announced that its Mobile Market family of products has been certified for electronic WIC transactions by Conduent, a leading EBT transaction processor.
The upshot of this certification is that retailers that use merchant processor...
6:58 AM
A smart device app solution for merchant processing of government nutrition payments, such as WIC
by
Bob Bucceri,
in
New
A smart device app solution for merchant processing of government nutrition payments, such as WIC. Nova Dia Group, a Texas-based developer of mobile-payment solutions, has announced that its Mobile Market family of products has been certified for electronic WIC transactions by Conduent, a leading...
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Disruption is a good thing in technology because it is how we grow and evolve. The last significant disruption in Federal food distribution was the Agriculture Department’s final rule mandating that all states adopt EBT for the distribution of Woman, Infants and Children benefits. This occurred in 2016....
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3 Simple Steps for Crafting a Winning Pitch for Government BusinessKnow Your Customer. In government sales, there are several parties you will have to deal with. They are the buyers who work for the procurement agency, the program officials who will actually manage how your produce or service...
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EBT electronic transaction messaging to get a reworkThe Retail Payments Subcommittee of electronic financial message standards group X9 is soon to begin revising the financial transaction message for EBT.Standardization of the electronic processing of SNAP (nee Food Stamps) purchase transactions “provides...
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p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px} Yet another state goes live with EBT payment technology for the WIC programIn April of 2018 the State of Arkansas began converting its Woman, Infants...
2:35 PM
The recently released Farm Bill mandates modernization of the Electronic Benefits Transfer system used to distributed SNAP (nee food stamps) benefits to eligible households
by
Bob Bucceri,
in
New
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px} Congress’ recently released Farm Bill mandates modernization of the Electronic-Benefits Transfer system, the specialized debit-card technology by...
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Marketing Technology to GovernmentI have seen a number of sellers and marketers crash and burn trying to market their technology products to government agencies. Often, the problem is a failure on the part of the seller or marketer to realize quickly enough that he or she and the agency rep are or should...
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Getting Started Contracting with Government By one estimate, there are 80,000 government agencies, federal, state and local, that purchase a variety of goods and services from the private sector. The aggregate value of these purchases is in the billions of dollars.Your first move in the government...
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Public Speaking Can Be a Career Builder or a Career BreakerIf you follow The Lobster I am betting that your interest in career development will make public speaking a career builder for you.Unfortunately, if you are unprepared and try to wing it, a speaking opportunity could well be a career breaker.When...
2:09 PM
by
Bob Bucceri,
in
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Chaddsford Planning Associates in the NewsWe recently publicized our participation in the 20th annual EBT-the Next Generation conference especially Front Page Focus which centered on the positive impact of the SNAP program on disaster recovery in Puerto Rico after the devastation of Hurricane Maria.As...