Bank Merchant Account

A You have heard correctly: Merchants pay fees when you use your plastic for purchases. Those charges are called "interchange fees," although there may be some fees with other names built in as well. The system is fairly complicated, but the fact is that if you spend $100 using plastic when shopping, the merchant likely will see only $98 or $99 of it. Credit-card and debit signature transactions typically cost merchants between 1 percent and 2 percent of the purchase amount in fees, depending on the type of card and the banks involved.

Some have called those fees an implicit tax, because merchants pass the costs on to customers in the form of higher prices.

Competing markets produce ill will

In addition to making recommendations regarding possible market hours, fees and rules, the steering committee took charge of managing private donations and using those funds to promote Festhalle."Once (civic) groups started seeing this project a lot of private donations came in," Simms said. "The city can't just take private contributions, so that money went to the steering committee. I think at one time (the committee) had around $40,000 in its account. That money is earmarked for promotion of the market and the Festhalle, such as paying for advertisements, billboards and radio spots."Williams, who also currently the vice president of Merchants Bank in Cullman, said the committee has between $25,000 and $30,000 in its bank account right now to use for promotion and advertising in the future.

Fortis transformation reflected in new top management structures

Fortis will restructure its top management as of 1 January 2008.[1] The Executive Committee will be recomposed and responsibilities redistributed. A Business Executive Committee - which will replace the Fortis Management Committee - will be installed and will operate in closest collaboration with a Group Executive Committee. Taking into account the Fortis managers who have already taken up responsibilities within ABN AMRO, Fortis is convinced it now has the adequate management structure in place, not only to guarantee the successful integration of the acquired businesses, but also to develop Fortis as a whole.

1. The Group Executive Committee will consist of:

* Jean-Paul Votron, CEO and Executive Director (Audit reports directly to the CEO);

* Herman Verwilst, Deputy CEO and Executive Director (Human Resources, Public and External Affairs, Business Transformation Office report to the Deputy CEO);

* Gilbert Mittler, Member of the Group Executive Committee responsible for Finance, Risk and General Counsel;

* Filip Dierckx, Member of the Group Executive Committee responsible for Merchant Banking;

* Lex Kloosterman, Member of the Group Executive Committee responsible for Private Banking, Asset Management, Investor Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility;

* Camille Fohl, Member of the Group Executive Committee responsible for Retail Banking and for Global Branding and Communications;

* Peer van Harten, Member of the Group Executive Committee responsible for Insurance and for Real Estate;

* Alain Deschênes, Member of the Group Executive Committee responsible for Technology and Information Services, Operations, Facility, Purchasing and Process Improvement.