The world of money is becoming increasingly mobile and increasingly social, and those two forces could make Western Union's core strength of a vast physical payment infrastructure and far-flung branches increasingly irrelevant.
It is when vast payments are the reward for poor performance that it is time to cry foul.
Jean Malouin, a family doctor in Michigan, woke up one morning earlier this month to an e-mail from a Washington Post reporter, who informed her that a vast release of Medicare payment data from 2012 had identified her as the highest female biller in the country, and the seventeenth-highest over all, with more than seven million dollars in payments.
By Lisa Rosenbaum April 23, 2014 Jean Malouin, a family doctor in Michigan, woke up one morning earlier this month to an e-mail from a Washington Post reporter, who informed her that a vast release of Medicare payment data from 2012 had identified her as the highest female biller in the country, and the seventeenth-highest over all, with more than seven million dollars in payments.
A robust system of checks and balances, human and digital, routinely prevents a vast majority of such payments, said David R. McLenachen, the director of the department's pensions and fiduciary service.
Most customers do miss or defer one payment, but a "vast majority" repay the loans in full, which is what ZestCash wants, Mr. Merrill said.
It has specialized in digital and has no real offline presence, which is where MoneyGram — which runs a vast offline network to distribute payments worldwide — could complement it.
Once bond yields start to rise, the short term structure of America's national debt will incur a vast increase in annual interest payments.
Roberto Suro, director of the Pew Hispanic Center, estimated that annual remittances to Mexico and Central America could reach $25 billion by the end of the decade, a vast sum made of countless tiny payments by America's lowest-paid workers.
Even as lenders have in recent months accelerated the pace at which they are reducing mortgage payments for borrowers, a vast majority of loans modified through the program remain in a trial stage lasting up to five months, and only a tiny fraction have been made permanent.
