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JPMorgan To Exit Foodstamp, Other Prepaid Cards Business
Mess with us, we'll mess with you. That is the message one can derive from JPMorgan's surprise announcement that it plans to "sell or wind down its business of issuing prepaid cards for corporate payrolls and government tax refunds and benefits." Which also includes the infamous Electronic Benefits Transfer, or foodstamps, card. According to Reuters, the product, which has been offered with cash and treasury services to companies and governments, "had become a headache of risks in operations and regulations, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly."
Curiously, it was just over two years ago when JPM said this about its EBT business:
“This business is a very important business to JP Morgan,” Christopher Paton, the company’s managing director of treasury services, told Bloomberg News in 2011. “It’s an important business in terms of its size and scale. We also regard it as very important in the sense that we are delivering a very useful social function. We are a key part of this benefit delivery mechanism. Right now volumes have gone through the roof in the past couple of years or so … The good news from JP Morgan’s perspective is the infrastructure that we built has been able to cope with that increase in volume.”
Guess the social function isn't that important any more. However, along with the responsibilities, JPM is losing a substantial revenue stream:
Just how lucrative JP Morgan’s EBT state contracts are is hard to say, because total national data on EBT contracts are not reported. But thanks to a combination of public-records requests and contracts that are available online, here’s what we do know: 18 of the 24 states JP Morgan handles have been contracted to pay the bank up to $560,492,596.02 since 2004. Since 2007, Florida has been contracted to pay JP Morgan $90,351,202.22. Pennsylvania’s seven-year contract totaled $112,541,823.27. New York’s seven-year contract totaled $126,394,917.
EBT processors charge for other services as well. For example, any time TANF recipients withdraw their cash benefits or make balance inquiries through out-of-network ATM machines, the user may incur ATM transaction fees generally ranging from $.75 to $1.50. In addition, most states allow EBT processors to charge card replacement fees. Arizona cardholders, for example, are permitted one free replacement a year, after which a $5 per card fee is imposed. The same goes for customer service calls: After an EBT cardholder exceeds the state’s maximum number of free calls, EBT processors typically tack on a $.25 per call fee.
That's a lot of money that one doesn't easily give up on. But that's what JPM just did. Or in other words, JPM just told the government which has been going after it relentlessly for the past year, forcing JPM to rack up some $25 billion in litigation reserves, "you can find someone else to manage your wholesale welfare program for nearly 50 million Americans."
There is more:
Last month JPMorgan warned some 465,000 holders of the cards that their personal data may have been accessed by computer hackers who attacked its network in July.
Government regulators are focusing on whether corporate payroll programs that use the cards have sufficient safeguards against burdening employees with fees.
For the past year the company has been moving to simplify its operations after its risk controls and guards against money laundering were found deficient by regulators.
According to JPMorgan's statement, the bank "will explore a full range of options for its prepaid card business, including a sale." In the meantime, it will continue to support current clients and cardholders. The decision does not affect Chase customers holding credit, debit or prepaid "Liquid" cards, the company said. Needless to add here, the last thing the precarious "recovery" needs right now are glitches with the EBT system, which as we saw last October when the EBT system briefly went "dark" nearly plunged the nation into a wholesale panic. Then again, such is quid pro quo life when the government bites one of the biggest hands that feed it.
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Outstanding. Let the name calling progress to bitch slapping.
The government and JPM still love each other. Trust me on this one. There is no trouble in Fascist Paradise.
16 HOUSE REPUBLICANS TO OBAMA: AMNESTY 'FINAL ECONOMIC BLOW' FOR AMERICAN WORKERS
The bigger picture that takes jobs from Americans and lowers the wages of those still working are LEGAL immigration and WORK VISAS. Those are the middle class jobs that are going to foreigners at the expense of Americans. The illegal aliens tend to take the lower paying jobs that black people won't do and white kids are no longer allowed to do.
Companies would rather hire a foreign national since that person can't demand a raise or just go across the street and get another job. A foreigner would have to go back to his country of origin and then start looking for a higher paying job. This keeps wages down for both the foreign national and the American worker. The massive legal immigrants add directly to the labor pool of American workers, driving down wages generally. This is simple supply and demand for labor.
Increase the supply of labor and the price of labor goes down. All of you "law abiding" that support LEGAL immigration are cutting your own throats, and the big corporations are helping you do that with work visas.
Nevertheless, the dumbed down masses cry for "legal" immigration while their paycheck whittles down to nothing and they can't afford to send their kids to college while the aliens go for free.
http://americandictators.blogspot.com/2014/01/16-house-republicans-to-ob...
53 out of 60 JPMorgan Chase & Co lobbyists in 2012 have previously held government jobs
Members of Congress who own JPMorgan Chase & Co shares: 43
Its my ball and Im taking it home - Waaaaaaaa!
I cant believe that even JPM had to stick their greedy hands into the foodstamp business. No wonder Obama kept extending these fuckin benefits....well now that JPM is leaving this business....Obama probably wont extend them anymore since his master (Dimon & Co) wont be getting anything back from doing so.
another sign of the impending collapse, JPM doesn't want the FSA coming after them when their EBT cards don't work anymore.
No offense...but is the FSA really going to storm JPM's (NYPD protected) headquarters when their card does not swipe or the poor guy on the other side of the cash register at 7/11?
No.
But it would have to be that obvious for the sheeple to see it.
I, respectfully, disagree. The sheep will always be sheep, no matter how obvious the fascism, to wit...
JP Morgan Chase Donates $4.6 Million To NYPD On Eve Of Protests
Here is the take-home message the NYPD clearly wants us all to understand: Bribery works. $10,000 supports a NYPD Intelligence Officer for one month in the, "International Liaison Program." Invest in a safe city...or else.
Now, we know where the cliché, Fascist Pigs, comes from!
OT, but this is right up your alley HH.
http://crunchtimenews.com/cockroach-infestation-closes-foster-farms-chic...
I wish more people would pay attention to this kind of shit. More of them would do what you do.
"rack up some $25 billion in litigation reserves"
Holy Shit......... that's alot of litigation.
http://www.housingwire.com/articles/27394-jpmorgan-investors-choke-on-su...
When Is Disclosure Required?
If a company determines that a loss is only “reasonably possible” or that a loss is “probable,” but the amount is not reasonably estimable, the company need not establish a reserve, but it still must disclose the nature of the possible loss and give an estimate of the possible loss or range of loss. The key is to ensure that the financial statements are not misleading.
http://www.perkinscoie.com/news/pubs_detail.aspx?op=updates&publication=...
Klink. That optimism will poke your eye out.
Fonz I'm going to go with the poor guy on the ohter side of the cash register at the 7/11 will take the hit. FSA does not have a clue who handles processing for EBT. If you conduct a poll, I'd bet 90% of Amerikans would answer "the government" handles all aspects of EBT cards.
Exactly. When the FSA start storming they will be like locust devouring everything in sight. It will be us against them while TPTB sit back comfortably.laughing.
The ZH "solution" would be to give all the poor people dirt fields with intrinsic value.
would you prefer giving them bitcoins?
You could give them bitcoin cards, sure. But that should be done through orgs, not through govs (which have no business in the welfare industry).
when the collapse comes the politcals will very much (and very quickly) be pointing the finger at the banks. count on it. there is no honor between thieves when the walls are crumbling around the city on the hill.
turn the card over but your point is taken, the FSA will strike out everyone
But it's no big deal. All JPM's competitors will come along to pick up the slack, won't they? Won't they?
You guys have poor JPM all wrong. It only does these programs out of the kindness of its heart. It loses money on its altruistic tendencies and only does Gods work for the people.
Ohhh no, i just felt something coming up the back of my throat
Obama says that same last line too.
KLINK HAHA good laugh, but there is a difference in "going down" and coming up the throat.
Pretty sure Obama goes both ways.
How many own XOM or RTN?
Politics and TBTF, MIC, Big Oil go hand in hand.
That is who they are serving because that is who pays them. Not much of a secret.
Unless heads roll, nothing will change.
I'll take, "spun off to cronies" for $500, Alex.
I would tend to agree. The idea that these guys would walk away from bilking taxpayers of free money based on either principle or a sandy vagina is a bridge too far.
A professional thief only voluntarily abandons a mark if it becomes too risky, or he knows the well has run dry.
JPM going John Galt
Which is the reason nobody will touch Freddie's Fannie with your 10 foot pole...mortgages are too fraught with risk in a world where you are one recession away from a portfolio of defaulting, rotting houses..
BitCoins Bitchez!
I'll take that contract and distribute all the bitcoins they want.
Cheers. .. fonestar?
Smells to me like JPM was most likely given a choice to either quit the business or be prosecuted and lose the business. Most likely rife with fraud and kickbacks and someone was going to sing.
Agreed. JPM is being prepard for the slaughter house. They will be cut into pieces and sold to the highest bidder in the near future.
As one personally screwed over by them, can't happen soon enough. I was given a $30 debit card by our .gov for participating in a survey of professionals with a graduate degree last spring. When I went to use it, I could not withdraw all the money. Their atms in Northern Ky only spit out 20's. The teller inside the bank could read the amount on the card as $30, but said she could not give me it because it had to come from the atm. I left and tried a different branch- same thing. When I read the balance at the atm, it was also now under thirty even though I never got a cent. Screwed over on bs fees as the boys got a few cents richer. I gave up as it was not worth the bp insult...
they love 'taking' money...could you have given the teller a $10 spot from your stash (or borrow it) and give to them to put on the card...then withdraw the $40? seems too easy to me. but I always think of ways to 'take it to the man'.....
I hope so.
don't worry, SNAP will now show up as Wal-Mart gift cards!
Good call. Wal-Mart & 7/11's, you know the convenience stores that only sell fresh, nutritional foods.
Perhaps Michelle wanted to steer more businees to her friend, the one with the company that did such a wonderful job with healthcare.gov.
Can you imagine the results if EBT/SNAP worked as well as healthcare.gov? I suspect DHS would have to use some of those billions of rounds of ammo they bought.
www,ebt.gov Error 404: YOUR MONEY(taken from someone else) NOT FOUND.
no worries....cause
"O'BAMA GONNA PAY MY MORTGAGE...."
poor debt coupon dollar debt slaves...
what now??????
how bout some Physical Silver........
"how bout some Physical Silver." Yes please then when I have bought it the Bankers can knock the price down and steal some more wealth from me Goldcoin and Silvercoin a great investment , now the same price as it was in 2010
"now the same price as it was in 2010..."
which is exactly the point "lost one"....
maintenance of purchasing power versus fake ass nominal dollar gains in debt coupon dollar denominated asset bubbles...
grab a inflation calculator dude...and learn the importance of discerning the distinction between the substantive versus the superficial....
THERE IS A REASON WHY A 1964 KENNEDY HALF DOLLAR HAS MORE VALUE THAN A $5 WORTHLESS FEDERAL RESERVE NOTE!!!
wisen up.....the Matrix has u.....
Yep!
My silver dime will still buy a loaf of bread:-)
I try to explain it to the old guys I do business with.
I say " does it seem like things are more expensive now vs. When you were a kid?"
Usual answer is " HELL YES!" And they go on to say " when I was young I could get a loaf of bread for a dime and a gallon of gas for a quarter"
I then put a silver dime and quarter on the table and I say "I can still get a loaf of bread with the dime and a gallon and a half of gas for the quarter"
Almost all of the time they look at me like I'm speaking another language!
Mongo u r speaking a differnet language...
its called knowledge....
You don't sell silver like flipping a house.
You acquire silver like you are buying a house.
G-d help us if .gov tries to step in and handle these logistics.
50 million of the best the U.S. has to offer going hungry does not bode well for our future.
Long ballistic-glass window shopping from here on out, the pot is starting to simmer...
https://pathofmusashi.wordpress.com/2014/01/09/the-ten-commandments/
I hear the HealthCare.gov IT staff is looking for work - maybe they could take over the EBT program too?
Zing!
they are making 0.25% on trillions for doing nothing. why would they want to do anything else?
Just "nationalize" JP Moron for security reasons. Easy! 1 down, 11 more to go.
Considering that bankers own a good portion of the government, that would be like an infinite loop. We wouldn't know who owns who anymore.
JPM's tolerance for sucking governmnet cock is endless...there must be more to the story that's not being revealed. A cock sucking whore like JPM never walks away from a dollar no matter how bad the stench.
I'm thinking of lawsuits looking to clawback all of those ATM fees.
It's gonna be a real hoot though once they sell this operation to the PBOC.
Yea, they've let them buy just about everything else lately.
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/us-china-smithfield-96399.html
Damn right Max Cynical:
"JPM's tolerance for sucking governmnet cock is endless...there must be more to the story that's not being revealed. A cock sucking whore like JPM never walks away from a dollar no matter how bad the stench."
There's more here than meets the eye... security costs perhaps?
And speaking of banking fees: $40.-- to transfer a little cash to your family, child or friend in Europe from the USA but from CH to USA I can do it myself for CHF 7.-- from my bank. Fucking USA banking fees/price-fixing is a goddamn scandal.
the FED can finance the purchase at 0% which will inflate the price for JPM on their way out. JPM will get indemnity of course on sale.
Why not just run SNAP off the ACA site? :)
Could be a tell.
Doesn't want blame when its switched off.
Shit ,I need a bigger tin foil hat with these fuckers.
There is always an ulterior motive in anything TBTF do.
My thoughts exactly - because when it gets switched off while "things are in transition" it may never be turned back on again due to a new congress
right..........these aszholes are 5-10 moves head of everyone else.......
My tin foil hat telling me that all of this is following a schedule. Seems to me that if you want to kick off riots, you wait until the late Spring. Riots are always most intense in the Summer.
"Hot town, summer in the city..."
The J.P. Morgue reminding government who the real boss is.
I wonder if PayPal is ready for this scope.
This is not a good sign.... They make $ every time the FSA swipes their card and with 50mil cards out there, this would have to be a Mexican standoff we are looking at here. The .Gov crew would fubar this beyond all hope. I don't want to see anyone not even the FSA have food interupted. Keep your powder dry.
"I don't want to see anyone not even the FSA have food interupted."
Well, I certainly do.
I'm sick to death of trillions of dollars of blackmail to generationally entrenched, parasitic savages.
Bring it.
PW I share your opinion, I should have said especially the FSA... I am fearing for all of our safety when the day comes that the EBT cards no longer work. Notice the "keep your powder dry" caviat.
Well it will be rough.
Hell they riot, and commit senseless acts of gratuitous violence, now for ABSOLUTELY NO REASON.
Still, that to me is FAR superior to continuing on this current path, which is absolutely insane.
I'll take a short period of a little of the old ultraviolence any day, over sustained, unrelenting madness.
Or in other words, JPM just told the government which has been going after it relentlessly for the past year, forcing JPM to rack up some $25 billion in litigation reserves, "you can find someone else to manage your wholesale welfare program for nearly 50 million Americans."
Mr. Blankfein call your office...
Just too many fines and settlements. esp. when they are doing Gods work... Administering the snap cards used to be FUN! ...but they have been screwed for too long by Uncle Sambaba, now JP Morgues' anus is bleeding. #AskJPM. http://youtu.be/6M17aG_Po2Y?0m38s
This is an opening for bitcoin. Issue btc to the masses.
I'm sure that will keep their bellies full.
Stack On
i must have missed the part where they actually exit the scams. shopping it around is more like it.
Unbelievable BS speculation put out by ZH. First when did EBT become infamous? Second there are many Merchant Card processors that can easily do what JPM does, in fact better.
To speculate that JPM is going to give up a fee driven business with 'money for nothing' as a retribution to USG for letting JPM insiders off-the hook in all their criminal activities is simply ridiculous. In due time will learn the motive? I wouldn't suppose that Elizabeth Warren didn't have any to do with it?
the only way jpm will quit doing ebt is if some dumb ass pays them umpteen bazillion dollars they can then give themselves another huge bonus. bac and citi are the only two stupid enough to do that.
There is more going on in the background we don't see yet to put this is proper context. Go back to the budget ceiling fight and EBT alleged glitch. There is an internal pissing match going on here. Frankly I wouldn't want to be adminstering the cards if Congress cuts off the funds and the FSA is looking to you as the reason because you are the card provider. Your profits are going to get eaten real quickly repairing broken windows and buying off local police forces to actually do their jobs when you are considered a pariah by many.
I wonder if Jamie boy threaten to reveal who's names are on the Black Rock Trust Fund securities and a game chicken is being played out over it. That is the leverage the FED and others in the banking industry use to get away with whatever the fuck they want. The 9-11 narrative falls apart along with the whole militarization of the US against it's citizens if that information becomes public knowledge..... They most likely used it in 2008 to get what they wanted.
$50M/yr to set up a database that just connects two numbers and does some simple math. Sign me up.
I bet the Obamacare division take this over..they can manage things so well...one stop shopping so to speak...get your free food and free insurance
maybe just start MCD accounts and force everyone to eat 3 squares at Mickey D? problem solved
Good, this should hasten the day of reckoning...
(although I doubt it)
Maybe they could get Corzine to run the program. That'll speed things up...aaaaaaannnd it's gone!
Well, one should remain optimistic.
For honest, self-reliant, productive people, the sooner we have our LONG overdue day of reckoning, the better.
Interesting; the buyers aren't buying what the sellers are selling. That has to rattle the nerves of politians everywhere.
Hmmm JPM must have recieved a heads up to exit this program. No way JPM is walking away from free money.
I am guessing this is in preparation for the dollar collapse. They don't want to be on the hook when everything seizes up.
It all will be going under Obamacare (Govt control). Yellen & Co. will handle the cards with the FED's new 3D printers.
Cards? Implanted chips, more likely.
Is it just me or is this ominous?
Sure seems like yet another step in the direction of decline, if that's what you mean by ominous. I welcome the decline as getting us closer to a day of reckoning and hopefully, reset.
Well it's not gonna help Family Dollar any.
http://dhnnews.com/half-the-people-that-shop-at-family-dollar-receive-go...
"had become a headache of risks in operations and regulations, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly."
....But risks and regulations don't apply to big corp. I think they just need to go go the time-out corner for being a b-a-a-a-d boy.
Yes they do when the FSA is smashing up your offices. That costs money to fix and pay off the police.
…that’s just Chimp chump change
Set up self policing workhouses in Kansas and Nebraska.
Here's a hoe and seeds ... get busy.
Think anyone getting a check & EBT today would go there if all free benefits stopped?
I think you might see a Renaissance of (ahem) 'self-actualization' among the FSA.
The October glitches were quite convenient politically. According to the article Xerox was the point-man. Maybe JP Morgan is exiting because it has morals? :-)
This just means that they have found more lucrative crimes elsewhere.
They are very capble of running multiple scams.
You can't start a food crisis until you starve out the poor. Oddly enough, it usually the poor that are the biggest fatasses, so they'll have to live on their honey boo boo blubber until they're ready to move.
I'd imagine 99 percent of EBT recipients have no idea JPM is driving the food stamp boat. They just want their free shit and a long, long uninterupted stream of it.
I can see Obamacare membership being a prerequisite for EBT approval though, shitfire yes.
Wouldn't be the worst idea to have some spare vittles stashed at the homestead and put that lawn space to work growing something edible, along with your handy Smith and Wesson. People will lose their shit if the Hot Pockets and Coke Zero pumps get shut off.
Self policing workhouses??? Good luck with that. If you don't work you don't eat was thrown out by the government in Lyndon Johnson's days. We threw prayer out of schools shortly after. Since 1973 in our nation over 40 million babies have been aborted. Does anyone ever consider what a generation and a half of 40 million people born, educated, working, starting families and businesses would mean to our economy. I believe the population of Canada is under 40 million. That is what has been killed in the name of women's rights. We have embraced murder and in fact encouraged it. It will become more evident as the "useless baby boomers" are no longer productive. If we willingly kill the unborn will we not willingly look the other way for the elderly? Our society is broken. I don't believe it is unfixable but we are a long, long way off from what this country was founded on. If EBT cards are turned off there will be no safe place in cities of over half a million people. Those wishing for it have never see it or lived it. I was 13 during the 68 riots. Dad's factory was in the hood and I rode shotgun with mom in the car to pick him up at the end of his afternoon shift. It wasn't a shotgun but a 357 in the glove box. We had women whose fingers were cut off to steal their wedding rings. People would walk up on your car at red lights. We are on a very large see saw and I think at this point it can go either way. Talk all you want about lead and brass and I have that but you won't have enough. Riots aren't pretty and there are no winners only survivors. A cleansing and reorganization the size of what is needed in our society I think will only come about with a black swan so big and so black,, hope I can say that here, I shudder to think. If EBT system goes down for a week you will find out what SHTF really means. Better have one hell of a back up plan. Good day all.
good points
do you ever consider what 40 million more extreme dumbasses would do to your quality of life, to the economy, all free-on-mah-eeebeetee, and how lucky you are they AREN'T here?
Abortion is more than a core freedom, it's improving the quality of life for everyone.
it's all free on mah eee beee.... oh wait...
No EBT cards, no skim, No JPM.
Looks like the reset is finally on its way.
BOOOGAHH. (that's a quote fom 'Braveheart')
Our businesses are booming> Quote for the president's live TV broadcast. Manufacturing, housing, technologies it is all coming up roses. Wow. Speechless. Booming I say.
Why don't they just breakup the entire business?
*Crickets*
An extended EBT outage leading to civil disorder - planned or accidental - is high on my expectations list for the next few years.
So who will grease the palms of ag committee members in the House and Senate (which oversees the USDA and thus food stamps) with JPM out of the picture?
JPM got involved in food stamps in 2003 and drove costs from $1000 per user/year to well over $1700--with a corresponding increase in political contributions to ag members. Cronyism at its finest...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8O70bZD39g
"Or in other words, JPM just told the government which has been going after it relentlessly for the past year, forcing JPM to rack up some $25 billion in litigation reserves...
LMAO on the canard that 'The Morgue' is just a poor innocent victim of evil government...