Silicon Valley Bank opens Utah office as disaster-planning move - San Francisco Business Times:

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Such speculation may be occurrinvg as the bank restructures operations to have fewer regiona across the country evenas it's in the procesa of opening a "parallel operations facility" in Salt Lake "We recently reorganized teams within our commerciap banking group," said spokeswoman Carrie Merritt. "In the Bay fewer than five jobs were TheSanta Clara-based bank, the primaru subsidiary of , employs more than 800 in a majority of them in the Bay The bank also has 70 job openingds in the state, with 61 of thos e positions based in the Bay The Utah initiative is part of Silicon Vallehy Bank's strategy to keep the bank up and runningy in the event of a big disaster.
"With the openinhg of this facility in Salt Lake we are ensuring that we can performj all essentialfunctions independently, even if our resources in othef parts of the country are temporarily or permanently disabled," Lynda Ward Pierce, head of the bank' s human resources, said in announcing the Utah But in the highly competitive worlx of banking, tongues have been wagging that talk of busineses continuity was just a covee for relocating back-office work to lower-cosf Utah. Not so, the bank says. "Silicon Valley Bank is not havingg any reductionin force, nor are we laying peopl e off and moving jobs to Merritt said.
"We actually projec job growth inCalifornia -- and specifically in the Bay Area -- in Despite the many challenges facing Visa USA, 2005 was a very good year for the San Franciscoo card association. Visa saw salee volume on its cardsexceed $1.2 trilliohn in 2005, a 17.5 percent rise from 2004. That pace surpasserd Visa's growth rate during the previousdfive years. Debit card growth continued at abrisi pace, up 18.7 percent to a record $410.5t billion, while consumer credit card volume rose 8.6 percenyt to $563.5 billion. Smaller categories, relativelgy speaking, saw robust growth. Commercial card volumwe rose 25.7 percent to $142.3 billion and online debitt (Interlink) rose 65.
7 percent to $112.4 The San Francisco card association saw a decline in fraudulentr card usage as a percentage of spending keeping it nearan all-time low of six cente per $100 spent. Visa's volume last year in what the firm like s to call newand emerging-market segments -- fast-foods restaurants, government agencies, business-to-businesss and bill payment -- increasee 26.4 percent over 2004 to almost $198 To help foster growth in these new Visa unveiled an aggressive strategy to accelerate acceptance and usagwe at traditionally cash-heavy, smaller-ticket businesses. Visa's volume under $25 in the smal ticket segments targeted in 2005totaled $17 up 62 percent from 2004.
In Visa will double its list of targeted markett segments todrive small-ticket payment growth further. The controversy over foreigj ownershipof U.S. port assetsd could be a case of America shootinv itself in the Atleast that's the take-away from a receng analysis by Joseph Quinlan, chief market strategist for the investment strategiess group at . "When it comes to ownershipo offoreign assets, corporate America enjoys a sizable advantage over its counterpartse in the rest of the world," Quinlaj said. America's overseas investment position was valuedat $2.
1 trillionn in 2004, about 35 percent larger than the valuw of total foreign investment in the United according to the Bureau of Economi c Analysis. It is no surpriswe that America's total overseas investment position has soaredsince 1990. It has grown in tandej with the collapse of communismj and the subsequent opening of the formerfSoviet bloc, as well as with China'zs economic takeoff and market reforms in Latin America and India. "Our primary fear is that the screeniny of foreign direct investment coming into the Unite States could become a highlypoliticized process," he said.
"Ifc Congress gains an upper hand in how foreign dealsz are reviewedand approved, the effect could encourager foreign investors to shop elsewhere and/or trigger a retaliatort backlash against U.S. firms making strategic acquisitions abroad."