Carson College of Business

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The Carson College of Business is the business school of Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. Established in 1963, it is one of the largest of the ten colleges in WSU.

Video Carson College of Business

History

The College of Business first offered economics courses since Washington State University started operating in 1892. The Department of Economic Science and History was created in 1917 as part of the College of Sciences and Arts, and in 1926, it became the Department of Business Administration. The department started offering programs in Secretarial Science, apart from the normal offering of economics courses, which is at that time composed of only five faculty members.

In 1928, the Department of Business Administration was elevated to school status and the faculty grew to fifteen members. However, it was incorporated with the College of Sciences and Arts until it received independent status in 1940. In 1948, the Economics department from the College of Sciences and Arts and the School of Business Administration merged, becoming the School of Economics and Business with the help of Dr. M. W. Lee.

In 1963, the school was granted college status and became the College of Business and Economics. The first functioning dean was Dr. Eugene Clark. The college first offered business courses with the establishment of three branch campuses of Washington State University in Tri-Cities, Spokane and Vancouver in 1989. The School of Economics Sciences is now part of College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences which offers courses in economics.

In 2006, the Washington State University Regents voted to change the college's name to the College of Business.

Maps Carson College of Business

Departments

WSU College of Business is divided into various units:

• Department of Accounting
• Department of Management, Information Systems, and Entrepreneurship
• Department of Marketing and International Business
• Department of Finance and Management Science
• Graduate Programs
• International Business Institute
• School of Hospitality Business Management

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Academics

The College of Business offers undergraduate and graduate programs at three Washington State University campuses in Pullman, Tri-Cities and Vancouver.The college is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

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International programs

In addition, the College of Business provides degree programs, internships, study abroad and faculty-led programs in Australia, China, Greece, Italy, Korea, Spain, Turkey, Tanzania, Switzerland, and Thailand.

Partnership with Cesar Ritz Colleges Switzerland

The WSU College of Business and the Cesar Ritz Colleges Switzerland have a partnership that confer two degrees from both institutions, a bachelor's degree in Hospitality Business Management from WSU College of Business and a bachelor's degree in International Business from Cesar Ritz Colleges. The three-year program allows students to earn two degrees with an extensive global business position and two six-month internships in Switzerland. Nearly 1,000 students have earned a Washington State University degree through César Ritz Colleges since its inception in 1984.

International Business Institute

WSU offers more than 1,200 education abroad opportunities. To date, the College of Business offers the following study abroad programs:

Faculty-led Programs

Semester Programs at International Centers

• Business in Switzerland, César Ritz Colleges
• Business in China, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (SWUFE)

Summer Programs

• Business in Australia, CAPA Sydney Program
• Business in Greece, University of Crete
• Business in Korea, Korea University
• Business in Northern Thailand, Chiang Mai University
• Business in Spain, Universitat Politècnica de València
• Business in Tanzania, The Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology
• Food and Wine of Italy, Apicius International School of Hospitality
• Hospitality Experience in Phuket, Thailand, The Tropical Garden Resort

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Facilities

Facilities include:

• Atrium Cafe
• College of Business Copy Center
• E-Commerce Computer Classroom
• Finance and Management Science Classroom
• Financial Markets Trading Room
• Graduate Suite
• College of Business Atrium Display Gallery
• Technology Classroom
• Wine Business Management Classroom

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Centers and institutes

WSU College of Business hosts numerous centers and institutes for research activities. Centers and institutes include:

• Center for Behavioral Business Research
• Center for Entrepreneurial Studies
• Innovation Assessment Center
• J Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation Hospitality Teaching Center
• Carson Center for Student Success
• WSU Economic Development Administration University Center
• Howard D. and B. Phyllis Hoops Institute of Taxation Research and Policy
• International Business Institute

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References

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External links

• Official website

Source of the article : Wikipedia

G Suite

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G Suite (formerly Google Apps for Work and Google Apps for Your Domain) is a brand of cloud computing, productivity and collaboration tools, software and products developed by Google, first launched on August 28, 2006 as "Google Apps for Your Domain". G Suite comprises Gmail, Hangouts, Calendar, and Google+ for communication; Drive for storage; Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and Sites for collaboration; and, depending on the plan, an Admin panel and Vault for managing users and the services. It also includes the digital interactive whiteboard Jamboard.

While these services are free to use for consumers, G Suite adds enterprise features such as custom email addresses at a domain (@yourcompany.com), option for unlimited cloud storage (depending on plan and number of members), additional administrative tools and advanced settings, as well as 24/7 phone and email support.

Being based in Google's data centers, data and information is saved instantly and then synchronized to other data centers for backup purposes. Unlike the free, consumer-facing services, G Suite users do not see advertisements while using the services, and information and data in G Suite accounts do not get used for advertisement purposes. Furthermore, G Suite administrators can fine-tune security and privacy settings.

As of January 2017, G Suite has 3 million paying businesses, and 70 million G Suite for Education users.

Video G Suite

History

From February 10, 2006, Google tested "Gmail for Your Domain" at San Jose City College, hosting Gmail accounts with SJCC domain addresses and admin tools for account management.On August 28, 2006, Google launched Google Apps for Your Domain, a set of apps for organizations. Available for free as a beta service, it included Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar, and the Google Page Creator, which was later replaced with Google Sites. Dave Girouard, then Google's vice president and general manager for enterprise, outlined its benefits for business customers: "Organizations can let Google be the experts in delivering high quality email, messaging, and other web-based services while they focus on the needs of their users and their day-to-day business". Google announced an edition for schools, then known as Google Apps for Education, on October 10, 2006.

On February 22, 2007, Google introduced Google Apps Premier Edition, which differed from the free version by offering more storage (10 GB per user), APIs for business integration, 99.9% uptime for Gmail, and 24/7 phone support. It cost $50 per user account per year. According to Google, early adopters of Google Apps Premier Edition included Procter & Gamble, San Francisco Bay Pediatrics, and Salesforce.com. Additionally, all editions of Google Apps were then able to use Google Documents and Spreadsheets, users could access Gmail on BlackBerry mobile devices, and administrators gained more application control. Further enhancements came, on June 25, 2007, when Google added a number of features to Google Apps, including mail migration from external IMAP servers, shared address books, a visual overhaul of Google Docs and Google Sheets, and increased Gmail attachment size. A ZDNet article noted that Google Apps now offered a tool for switching from the popular Exchange Server and Lotus Notes, positioning Google as an alternative to Microsoft and IBM. On October 3, 2007, a month after acquiring Postini, Google announced that the startup's email security and compliance options had been added to Google Apps Premier Edition. Customers now had the ability to better configure their spam and virus filtering, implement retention policies, restore deleted messages, and give administrators access to all emails.

Google introduced Google Sites on February 28, 2008. Google Sites provided a simple new Google Apps tool for creating intranets and team websites.

On June 9, 2009, Google launched Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook, a plugin that allows customers to synchronize their email, calendar, and contacts data between Outlook and Google Apps. Less than a month later, on July 7, 2009, Google announced that the services included in Google Apps--Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, and Google Talk--were out of beta.

Google opened the Google Apps Marketplace, on March 9, 2010, which is an online store for third-party business applications that integrate with Google Apps, to make it easier for users and software to do business in the cloud. Participating vendors included Intuit, Appirio, and Atlassian. On July 26, 2010, Google introduced an edition for governments, then-known as Google Apps for Government, which was designed to meet the public sector's unique policy and security needs. It was also announced that Google Apps had become the first suite of cloud applications to receive Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) certification and accreditation.

Nearly five years after the launch of Google Apps, on April 26, 2011, Google announced that organizations with more than 10 users were no longer eligible for the free edition of Google Apps. They would have to sign up for the paid version, now known as Google Apps for Business. A flexible billing plan was also introduced, giving customers the option of paying $5 per user per month with no contractual commitment.

On March 28, 2012, Google launched Google Vault, an optional electronic discovery and archiving service for Google Apps for Business customers. And then, on April 24, 2012, Google introduced Google Drive, a platform for storing and sharing files. Each Google Apps for Business user was given 5GB of Drive storage, with the option to purchase more. Later that year, Google announced that the free version of Google Apps would no longer be available to new customers.

Google unified the storage between Drive and Gmail, on May 13, 2013, giving Google Apps customers 30GB total that are shared across the apps.

On March 10, 2014, Google launched the Google Apps Referral Program, which offers participating individuals a $15 referral bonus for each new Google Apps user they refer. Google, on June 25, 2014, announced Drive for Work, a new Google Apps offering featuring unlimited file storage, advanced audit reporting, and new security controls for $10 per user per month.

Google Enterprise, the company's business product division, was officially renamed Google for Work on September 2, 2014. Eric Schmidt, then Google's executive chairman said, "we never set out to create a traditional 'enterprise' business--we wanted to create a new way of doing work (...) so the time has come for our name to catch up with our ambition".

Google announced that Google Apps would be rebranded as G Suite on September 29, 2016. Then, on October 25, 2016, Google launched the first hardware product for G Suite, the Jamboard; a 55-inch digital whiteboard connected to the cloud.

Maps G Suite

Products

G Suite comprises Gmail, Hangouts, Calendar, and Google+ for communication; Drive for storage; Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and Sites for collaboration; and an Admin panel and Vault for managing users and the services.

The Basic plan includes email addresses with custom domains (@yourcompany.com), video and voice calls, calendars, 30GB storage, collaborative documents, spreadsheets, presentations and sites, controls for security and privacy, and 24/7 phone and email support. The Business plan adds Vault for eDiscovery and enables many additional custom features, including advanced admin controls for Drive, unlimited storage (or 1TB per user if fewer than 5 users) on Drive, audit and reporting insights for Drive content and sharing, custom message retention policies, and more.

Gmail

Gmail is a web-based email service, launched in a limited beta release in April 2004. With over 1 billion active consumer users worldwide in February 2016, it has become popular for giving users large amounts of storage space, and for having threaded conversations and robust search capabilities.

As part of G Suite, Gmail comes with additional features designed for business use, including:

• Email addresses with the customer's domain name (@yourcompany.com)
• 99.9% guaranteed uptime with zero scheduled downtime for maintenance
• 30GB of storage space
• 24/7 phone and email support
• Synchronization compatibility with Microsoft Outlook and other email providers
• Support for add-ons that integrate third-party apps purchased from the G Suite Marketplace with Gmail

Google Drive

Google Drive is a file storage and synchronization service, launched on April 24, 2012. The official announcement described Drive as "a place where you can create, share, collaborate, and keep all of your stuff".

With Google Drive, users can upload any type of file to the cloud, share them with others, and access them from any computer, tablet, or smartphone. Users can sync files between their device and the cloud with apps for Microsoft Windows and Apple macOS computers, and Android and iOS smartphones and tablets.

As part of G Suite, Google Drive comes with additional features designed for business use, including:

• Either 30GB, 1TB per user, or unlimited storage, depending on the plan
• Advanced admin controls, depending on the plan
• Audit and reporting insights for Drive content and sharing, depending on the plan

Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms

Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides are all respectively a word processor, a spreadsheet and a presentation program. The three programs originate from company acquisitions in 2006, and are today integrated into Google Drive. They all serve as collaborative software that allow users to view and edit documents, spreadsheets and presentations together in real-time through a web browser or mobile device. Changes are saved automatically, with a revision history keeping track of changes. Google Forms, meanwhile, is a tool that allows collecting information from users via a personalized survey or quiz. The information is then collected and automatically connected to a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is populated with the survey and quiz responses.

In June 2014, Google introduced Office support in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides without the need for file conversion. Writing for TechCrunch, Frederic Lardinois wrote that "Google is clearly positioning its apps as a more affordable solutions for companies that need to occasionally edit Office files".

As part of G Suite, Google Docs and Slides come with additional features designed for business use, including unlimited revision history.

Google Sites

Google Sites is a creation tool that allows multiple people to create and edit websites, without requiring coding knowledge or other web design skills. It was introduced in February 2008 in an effort to help customers "quickly gather a variety of information in one place - including videos, calendars, presentations, attachments, and text - and easily share it for viewing or editing with a small group, their entire organization, or the world."

Google Calendar

Google Calendar is an online calendar intended to help keep track of time and schedules. It was launched in April 2006, and integrates with Gmail for users to easily add events from email messages directly to the calendar.

As part of G Suite, Google Calendar comes with additional features designed for business use, including:

• Smart scheduling of meetings, where the service finds available times and appropriate locations based on coworkers' schedules
• Public calendars for consumers to see a business' upcoming events
• Calendar integration with Google Sites
• Easy migration from Exchange, Outlook or iCal, or from .ics and .csv files
• Ability to see what meeting rooms and shared resources are available

Google Hangouts

When Google Apps for Your Domain was launched in 2006, Google Talk was used for communication. This was later replaced in May 2013 by Google Hangouts, a messaging service that incorporates technology from different communication services Google had developed.

Hangouts supports text, voice and video conversations (video up to 25 participants), and is cross-platform on the web, Android and iOS.

In July 2014, Google announced that Hangouts would be covered under the same 99.9% uptime guarauntee that Gmail and Google Drive have, as well as 24/7 phone and email support.

As part of G Suite, Google Hangouts comes with additional features designed for business use, including:

• Participants can share their screens.
• The screen automatically focuses on the person who is speaking, and "intelligent muting" prevents background noise.
• Businesses can host Hangouts on Air; public livestreams that are automatically saved to the business' YouTube account
• Integration with Google Calendar for one-click start of a Hangouts conversation at the beginning of a meeting
• Custom controls for admins, including limiting access, turning chat history off, and the ability to eject participants for privacy
• Custom status messages

Hangouts Meet

After being invite-only and quietly releasing an iOS app in February 2017, Google formally launched Hangouts Meet in March 2017. The service was unveiled as a video conferencing app for up to 30 participants, described as an enterprise-friendly version of Hangouts. At launch, it featured a web app, an Android app, and an iOS app. Features for G Suite users include:

• Up to 25 members per call (30 for G Suite Enterprise users)
• Ability to join meetings from the web or through the Android or iOS app
• Ability to call into meetings with a dial-in number
• Password-protected dial-in numbers for G Suite Enterprise edition users
• Integration with Google Calendar for one-click meeting calls
• Screen-sharing to present documents, spreadsheets, or presentations
• Encrypted calls between all users

Google Hangouts Meet is a standards-based Video Conferencing application, using proprietary protocols for video, audio and data transcoding. Google have partnered with Pexip to provide interoperability between the Google protocol and standards-based SIP/H.323 protocols to enable communications between Hangouts Meet and other Video Conferencing equipment and software.

Google+

Google+, Google's social networking service, was launched in invitation-only basis in June 2011, before becoming officially available in October.

It is used to let team members "engage and communicate" at "a deeper level", with a stream featuring posts, comments and Communities based on common goals. It "makes it easy for anyone to discuss and share ideas, no matter their team, level or location". It features Collections that make it easy to group posts by topic, in order for users to "show what they know and follow what matters most".

As part of G Suite, Google+ comes with additional features designed for business use, including:

• Enhanced privacy controls
• Restricted communities

Google Keep

Google Keep is a note-taking service with a variety of tools for notes, including text, lists, voice, and images.

Google Keep became part of G Suite in February 2017, and as part of G Suite, Google Keep comes with additional features designed for business use, including:

• Integration with Google Docs to easily access Keep notes while on Docs on the web

Google Vault

Google Vault, an archiving and electronic discovery service exclusively available to G Suite customers, was announced on March 28, 2012.

Vault gives users "an easy-to-use and cost-effective solution for managing information critical to your business and preserving important data", with Google stating that it can "reduce the costs of litigation, regulatory investigation and compliance actions" by saving and managing Gmail messages and chat logs with the ability to search and manage data based on filters, such as terms, dates, senders, recipients, and labels.

An update in June 2014 let Vault customers search, preview, copy, and export files in Google Drive.

Jamboard

In October 2016, Google announced Jamboard, the first hardware product designed for G Suite. Jamboard is a digital interactive whiteboard that enables collaborative meetings and brainstorming. The Jamboard is connected to the cloud, and enables people in different locations to work together in real-time through multiple Jamboards or connected remotely through a smartphone companion app. The Jamboard recognizes different touch inputs, such as using a stylus to sketch or eraser to start over, and does not require batteries or pairing. The Jamboard is a 55-inch 4K display with a built-in HD camera, speakers and Wi-Fi.

G Suite Marketplace

The G Suite Marketplace (formerly Google Apps Marketplace), launched in 2010, is an online store with business-oriented cloud applications that augment G Suite functionality. The Marketplace lets administrators browse for, purchase, and deploy integrated cloud applications. It comprises the Business Tools, Productivity, Education, Communication, and Utilities categories.

In September 2014, Google released a blog post saying that employees would be able to install third-party apps from the Marketplace without involving administrators.

Other functionality

Introduced in February 2017, Google Cloud Search enables a "unified search experience" in G Suite. Cloud Search lets users search for information across the entire G Suite product lineup. Users can also search for contacts, with results including the person's contact details, as well as events and files in common. The Cloud Search mobile app features "assist cards", described by Google as "a new way to help you find the right information at the right time. Using Google's machine intelligence technology, these cards can help you prepare for an upcoming meeting or even suggest files that need your attention". Google states that Cloud Search respects file-sharing permissions, meaning that users will only see results for files they have access to. The initial global rollout of Cloud Search introduced the functionality for G Suite Business and Enterprise customers, with Google stating that more functionality will be added over time, including support for third-party applications.

Introduced in July 2017, "Hire" is a job applications and management tool developed by Google to be used in combination with G Suite. The tool lets employers track job candidates' contact information, as well as résumés, calendar invitations, and allows for business partners to share feedback on candidates. Job applicants can choose what information to share with potential employers. The tool is designed for businesses based in the United States with fewer than 1,000 employees, and integrates with Google services, such as Gmail for sending messages, Google Calendar for tracking schedules, Google Sheets for overview of all candidates, and Google Hangouts for initial conversations.

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Security and privacy

Google states that "we do not collect, scan or use your G Suite data for advertising purposes and do not display ads in G Suite, Education, or Government core services". Furthermore, it states that "the data that companies, schools and government agencies put into our G Suite services does not belong to Google. Whether it's corporate intellectual property, personal information or a homework assignment, Google does not own that data and Google does not sell that data to third parties".

Data is stored in Google's data centers, which are "built with custom-designed servers, that run our own operating system for security and performance", with "more than 550 full-time security and privacy professionals". In a blog post, Google stated that benefits of using G Suite included "disaster recovery", with data and information "simultaneously replicated in two data centers at once, so that if one data center fails, we nearly instantly transfer your data over to the other one that's also been reflecting your actions." Though acknowledging that "no backup solution from us or anyone else is absolutely perfect", Google states that it has "invested a lot of effort to help make it second to none".

Encryption, specifically AES 128-bit or stronger, is applied to data while stored at data centers, under transit between data centers and users, and between data centers.

At its introduction in June 2014, TechCrunch reported that Google Drive, as part of G Suite, offers "enterprise-grade security and compliance", including SSAE 16 / ISAE 3402 Type II, SOC 2-audit, ISO 27001 certification, adherence to the Safe Harbor Privacy Principles, and can support industry-specific requirements like Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

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Customers

As of January 2017, Google has 3 million businesses paying for G Suite, while it has 70 million G Suite for Education users.

In September 2014, Amit Singh, then-President of then-named Google for Work, stated that "60 percent of the Fortune 500" companies were paying for the service, with "more than 1,800 customers" signing up each week.

Notable companies using G Suite include Uber, AllSaints, BuzzFeed, Design Within Reach, and PwC.

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Referral and partner programs

In March 2014, Google announced the Google Apps Referral Program in the United States and Canada. The program lets users receive money, coupons and other incentives by referring customers to G Suite.

In December 2014, Google introduced the Google for Work and Education Partner Program. The program combined existing, individual programs from Apps, Chrome, Cloud Platform, Maps, and Search into one overall program, and "allows partners to better sell, service and innovate across the Google for Work and Education suite of products and platforms".

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Reception

In an August 2011 review, PC World's Tony Bradley wrote that "the value of a rival platform such as Google Apps hinges on how compatible it is with Microsoft Office formatting conventions and file types", praising Google for having "gone to great lengths to improve fidelity with Microsoft Office, but it hasn't gone far enough", criticizing "many features" for being reformatted, including "tables of contents, footnotes, or inserted images". Bradley praised Google's collaborative apps, writing that it was "besting what Microsoft offers in Office 365". Regarding the price, he wrote that "Google's package is the best value. The annual pricing of $50 per user per year makes it about a third less per user per year than Office 365, yet it boasts equivalent functionality sufficient for most small and medium organizations".

Gary Marshall of TechRadar commented in 2016 that "Where Office tries to do everything imaginable, Google's suite is much more basic. That said, it's much more powerful than it was when the package debuted in 2006, but the emphasis on simplicity and speed remains." Marshall wrote that "We wouldn't want to craft a massive, complicated manuscript in Docs, but then that isn't what Docs is designed to do. It's a fast and user-friendly way to create everyday documents and to share them with colleagues and clients", and that fellow service Google Sheets "covers the most common Excel functions [...] but doesn't have the power of Microsoft's offering". Marshall praised collaboration for being "effortless", and praised importing of external file formats and making those editable and collaborative for being a "big selling point".

PC Magazine's Eric Grevstad wrote that "what's online is what you get", adding that "configuring them to [work offline] is a rigmarole". He stated that the package was "an illustration of software's version of the 80/20 rule [...] 80 percent of users will never need more than 20 percent of the features". He stated that "comparing [G Suite] to Office 2016 is like bringing a handgun to a cannon fight [...] Microsoft's PC-based suite is designed to have almost every feature anyone might ever need; Google's online suite is designed to have most features most people use daily."

Tom's Hardware's James Gaskin wrote that "like most Google products, it can claim the cleanest and most minimal interface in the market", and "No other suite except Office 365 can get close to the ease of collaboration Google provides. And even Microsoft's product trails by a wide margin as changes only appear in real-time in Word 2016, not the other apps". Conclusively, he wrote: "The progress made between the first Google App release and now has been considerable. As the world moves to more and more mobile computing, Google has a distinct advantage. But tradition dies hard, and those who build more than basic documents, spreadsheets, and presentations will remain tied to their desktops and laptops for the time being."

After Google+ was launched, many articles were published that emphasized that having a presence on Google+ helped with the business' Google search result rankings. Particularly public-facing Pages and +1 buttons were pushed as effective marketing strategies.

However, writing for The New York Times, Quentin Hardy said that "the sour grapes version is that Google Plus isn't getting anything like the buzz or traffic of Facebook, so Google is figuring out other ways to make the service relevant". However, Hardy did note that the integration between Google+ and other, more popular Google services, including Hangouts, meant "it's still early on, but it's easy to see how this could be an efficient way to bring workers to a virtual meeting, collaborate during it and embed in a calendar the future work commitments and follow-up that result".

Competitors

The key competitor to the Google suite is Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft's cloud-based offering for businesses that includes similar products. The key differences are in the pricing plans, storage space and number of features. As noted by TechRepublic in 2013, pricing plans differ in that "Google Apps has a quick and easy pricing plan for their standard Google Apps for Business package: $5 per user per month or $50 per user per year ... In contrast, Office 365 has a multitude of plans (six as of September, 2013) which can be both good and bad since it provides flexibility but also involves some complexity to figure out the best choice". Storage space varies because "Office 365 gives users 50 GB of space in Outlook and 25 GB in Skydrive. Google Apps provides 30 GB of space which is spread among Gmail, Drive and Picasa". And regarding features, it states that "Office 365 has the advantage for plenty of users who have been familiar with Word, Excel and the rest of the gang for years; there is less of a learning curve than with Google Apps if the latter represents a brand new experience ... However, it's also true that Office is notorious for being loaded with complex, unused features which can cause confusion, so the familiarity many will embrace also comes with something of a price, especially if companies are paying for advanced packages not all employees will use. By contrast, Google Apps programs are fairly easy to learn and intuitive, but may feel too awkward for those who are hard-coded to work in Office." Stephen Shankland of CNET wrote in 2014 that "It's hard to compare Google Apps' success to that of Microsoft Office since Google doesn't release revenue or user figures".

As of March 2016, Microsoft has 60 million commercial customers signed up for its Office 365 product offering, with "50,000 small business customers added to Office 365 each month".

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See also

• Google Cloud Platform
• Google Drive for Work
• Comparison of office suites
• Online office suite

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References

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Further reading

• Beswick, James (2009). Getting Productive With Google Apps. San Francisco, CA: 415 Systems. ISBN 978-1-4404-8676-0. 
• Conner, Nancy (2008). Google Apps: The Missing Manual. Sebastopol: Pogue Press. ISBN 978-0-596-51579-9. 
• Granneman, Scott (2008). Google Apps Deciphered: Compute in the Cloud to Streamline Your Desktop. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-700470-6. 
• Meet the father of Google Apps (who used to work at Microsoft)

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External links

• Official website (US)
• Official website (UK)
• Official Google Apps Partner Search
• Official Google Drive for Work
• Official Google Apps Marketplace

Source of the article : Wikipedia

Transaction account

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A transaction account, checking account, chequing account, current account, demand deposit account, or share draft account (at credit unions) is a deposit account held at a bank or other financial institution. It is available to the account owner "on demand" and is available for frequent and immediate access by the account owner or to others as the account owner may direct. Access may be in a variety of ways, such as cash withdrawals, use of debit cards, cheques (checks) and electronic transfer. In economic terms, the funds held in a transaction account are regarded as liquid funds and in accounting terms they are considered as cash.

Transaction accounts are operated by both businesses and personal users. Depending on the country and local demand economics they may not earn any or they can earn very high interest rates. Again depending on the country the financial institution that maintains the account may charge the account holder maintenance or transaction fees or offer the service free to the holder and charge only if the holder uses an add-on service such as an overdraft.

Transaction accounts are known by a variety of descriptions, including a current account (British English), chequing account or checking account when held by a bank, share draft account when held by a credit union in North America. In the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, India and a number of other countries, they are commonly called current or cheque accounts. Because money is available on demand they are also sometimes known as demand accounts or demand deposit accounts. In the United States, NOW accounts operate as transaction accounts.

Video Transaction account

History

In Holland in the early 1500s, Amsterdam was a major trading and shipping city. People who had acquired large accumulations of cash began to deposit their money with cashiers to protect their wealth. These cashiers held the money for a fee. Competition drove cashiers to offer additional services, including paying out money to any person bearing a written order from a depositor to do so. They kept the note as proof of payment.

This concept spread to other countries including England and its colonies in North America, where land owners in Boston in 1681 mortgaged their land to cashiers who provided an account against which they could write checks.

In the 18th century in England, preprinted checks, serial numbers, and the word "cheque" appeared. By the late 18th century, the difficulty of clearing checks (sending them from one bank to another for collection) gave rise to the development of clearing houses.

Maps Transaction account

Features and access

All transaction accounts offer itemised lists of all financial transactions, either through a bank statement or a passbook. A transaction account allows the account holder to make or receive payments by:

• ATM cards (withdraw cash at any Automated Teller Machine)
• Debit card (cashless direct payment at a store or merchant)
• Cash (deposit and withdrawal of coins and banknotes at a branch)
• Cheque and money order (paper instruction to pay)
• Direct debit (pre-authorized debit)
• Standing order (automatic regular funds transfers)
• Electronic funds transfers (transfer funds electronically to another account)
• Online banking (transfer funds directly to another person via internet banking facility)

Banks offering transactional accounts may allow an account to go into overdraft if that has been previously arranged. If an account has a negative balance money is being borrowed from the bank and interest and overdraft fees as normally charged.

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Country specific differences

In the United Kingdom and other countries with a UK banking heritage transaction accounts are known as current accounts. These offers various flexible payment methods to allow customers to distribute money directly. One of the main differences between a UK current account and an American checking account is that they earn considerable interest, sometimes comparable to a savings account, and there is generally no charge for withdrawals at cashpoints (ATMs), other than charges by third party owners of such machines.

Transfer systems

Certain modes of payment are country-specific:

• Giro (funds transfer, direct deposit in European countries)
• In the United Kingdom, Faster Payments Service offers near immediate transfer, BACS offers giros that clear in a matter of days while CHAPS is done on the same day.
• Canada has an Interac e-Transfer service
• In India, NEFT and RTGS services are available to clear funds in a day.

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Access

Branch access

Customers may need to attend a bank branch for a wide range of banking transactions including cash withdrawals and financial advice. There may be restrictions on cash withdrawals, even at a branch. For example, withdrawals of cash above a threshold figure may require notice.

Many transactions that previously could only be performed at a branch can now be done in others ways, such as use of ATMs, online, mobile and telephone banking.

Cheques

Cheques were the traditional method of making withdrawals from a transaction account.

Automated teller machines

Automated teller machines (ATMs) enable customers of a financial institution to perform financial transactions without attending a branch. This enables, for example, cash to be withdrawn from an account outside normal branch trading hours. However, ATMs usually have quite low limits for cash withdrawals, and there may be daily limits to cash withdrawals other than at a branch.

Mobile banking

With the introduction of mobile banking a customer to perform banking transactions and payments, to view balances and statements, and various other facilities using their mobile phone. In the UK this has become the leading way people manage their finances, as mobile banking has overtaken internet banking as the most popular way to bank.

Internet banking

Internet or online banking enables a customer to perform banking transactions and payments, to view balances and statements, and various other facilities. This can be convenient especially when a bank is not open and enables banking transactions to be effected from anywhere Internet access is available. Online banking avoids the time spent travelling to a branch and standing in queues there. However, there are usually limits on the value of funds that can be transferred electronically on any day, making it necessary to use a cheque to effect such transfers when those limits are being reached.

Telephone banking

Telephone banking provides access to banking transactions over the telephone. In many cases telephone banking opening times are considerably longer than branch times.

Mail banking

A financial institution may allow its customers to deposit cheques into their account by mail. Mail banking can be used by customers of virtual banks (as they may not offer branches or ATMs that accept deposits) and by customers who live too far from a branch.

Stores and merchants providing debit card access

Most stores and merchants now have to accept debit card access for purchasing goods if they want to continue operating, especially now that some people only use electronic means of purchase. In the UK it is now reported that 1 in 7 people no longer carries or uses cash.

src: i2.wp.com

Cost

Any cost or fees charged by the financial institution that maintains the account, whether as a single monthly maintenance charge or for each financial transaction, will depend on a variety of factors, including the country's regulations and overall interest rates for lending and saving, as well as the financial institution's size and number of channels of access offered. This is why a direct bank can afford to offer low-cost or free banking, as well as why in some countries, transaction fees do not exist but extremely high lending rates are the norm. This is the case in the United Kingdom, where they have had free banking since 1984 when the then Midland Bank, in a bid to grab market share, scrapped current account charges. It was so successful that all other banks had no choice but offer the same or continue losing customers. Free banking account holders are now charged only if they use an add-on service such as an overdraft.

Financial transaction fees may be charged either per item or for a flat rate covering a certain number of transactions. Often, youths, students, senior citizens or high-valued customers do not pay fees for basic financial transactions. Some offer free transactions for maintaining a very high average balance in their account. Other service charges are applicable for overdraft, non-sufficient funds, the use of an external interbank network, etc. In countries where there are no service charges for transaction fees, there are, on the other hand, other recurring service charges such as a debit card annual fee.

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Interest

Unlike savings accounts, for which the primary reason for depositing money is to generate interest, the main function of a transactional account is transactional. Therefore, most providers either pay no interest or pay a low level of interest on credit balances.

Formerly, in the United States, Regulation Q (12 CFR 217) and the Banking Acts of 1933 and 1935 (12 USC 371a) prohibited a member of the Federal Reserve system from paying interest on demand deposit accounts. Historically, this restriction was frequently circumvented by either creating an account type such as a Negotiable Order of Withdrawal account (NOW account), which is legally not a demand deposit account or by offering interest-paying chequing through a bank that is not a member of the Federal Reserve system. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, however, passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama on July 21, 2010, repealed the statutes that prohibit interest-bearing demand deposit accounts, effectively repealing Regulation Q (Pub. L. 111-203, Section 627). The repeal took effect on July 21, 2011. Since that date, financial institutions have been permitted, but not required, to offer interest-bearing demand deposit accounts.

In the United Kingdom, some online banks offer rates higher as many savings accounts, along with free banking (no charges for transactions) as institutions that offer centralised services (telephone, internet or postal based) tend to pay higher levels of interest. The same holds true for banks within the EURO currency zone.

High-yield accounts

High-yield accounts pay a higher interest rate than typical NOW accounts and frequently function as loss-leaders to drive relationship banking.

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Lending

Accounts can lend money in two ways: overdraft and offset mortgage.

Overdraft

An overdraft occurs when withdrawals from a bank account exceed the available balance. This gives the account a negative balance and in effect means the account provider is providing credit. If there is a prior agreement with the account provider for an overdraft facility, and the amount overdrawn is within this authorised overdraft, then interest is normally charged at the agreed rate. If the balance exceeds the agreed facility then fees may be charged and a higher interest rate might apply.

In North America, overdraft protection is an optional feature of a chequing account. An account holder may either apply for a permanent one, or the financial institution may, at its discretion, provide a temporary overdraft on an ad hoc basis.

In the UK, virtually all current accounts offer a pre-agreed overdraft facility the size of which is based upon affordability and credit history. This overdraft facility can be used at any time without consulting the bank and can be maintained indefinitely (subject to ad hoc reviews). Although an overdraft facility may be authorised, technically the money is repayable on demand by the bank. In reality this is a rare occurrence as the overdrafts are profitable for the bank and expensive for the customer.

Consumer reporting

In the United States, some consumer reporting agencies such as ChexSystems, Early Warning Services, and TeleCheck track how people manage their checking accounts. Banks use the agencies to screen checking account applicants. Those with low debit scores are denied checking accounts because a bank cannot afford an account to be overdrawn.

Offset mortgage

An offset mortgage was a type of mortgage common in the United Kingdom used for the purchase of domestic property. The key principle is the reduction of interest charged by "offsetting" a credit balance against the mortgage debt. This can be achieved via one of two methods: either lenders provide a single account for all transactions (often referred to as a current account mortgage) or they make multiple accounts available, which let the borrower notionally split money according to purpose, whilst all accounts are offset each day against the mortgage debt.

src: www.sage100reports.com

See also

Transaction related

• Collection item
• Demand draft
• Error account a necessity for auditing transaction accounts
• Transaction deposit

Account type related

• Current account mortgage
• Negotiable Order of Withdrawal account
• Personal account
• Savings account

src: www2.isu.edu

Notes

Source of the article : Wikipedia

Sanity check

src: www.ingeniosus.net

A sanity test or sanity check is a basic test to quickly evaluate whether a claim or the result of a calculation can possibly be true. It is a simple check to see if the produced material is rational (that the material's creator was thinking rationally, applying sanity). The point of a sanity test is to rule out certain classes of obviously false results, not to catch every possible error. A rule-of-thumb may be checked to perform the test. The advantage of a sanity test, over performing a complete or rigorous test, is speed.

In arithmetic, for example, when multiplying by 9, using the divisibility rule for 9 to verify that the sum of digits of the result is divisible by 9 is a sanity test--it will not catch every multiplication error, however it's a quick and simple method to discover many possible errors.

In computer science, a sanity test is a very brief run-through of the functionality of a computer program, system, calculation, or other analysis, to assure that part of the system or methodology works roughly as expected. This is often prior to a more exhaustive round of testing.

Video Sanity check

Mathematical

A sanity test can refer to various orders of magnitude and other simple rule-of-thumb devices applied to cross-check mathematical calculations. For example:

• If one were to attempt to square 738 and calculated 54,464, a quick sanity check could show that this result cannot be true. Consider that 700 < 738, yet 700² = 7²×100² = 490,000 > 54,464. Since squaring positive integers preserves their inequality, the result cannot be true, and so the calculated result is incorrect. The correct answer, 738² = 544,644, is more than 10 times higher than 54,464, and so the result had been off by an order of magnitude (it actually misses one digit).
• In multiplication, 918 × 155 is not 142,135 since 918 is divisible by three but 142,135 is not (digits add up to 16, not a multiple of three). Also, the product must end in the same digit as the product of end-digits 8×5=40, but 142,135 does not end in "0" like "40", while the correct answer does: 918×155=142,290. An even quicker check is that the product of even and odd numbers is even, whereas 142,135 is odd.

Maps Sanity check

Physical

• The power output of a car cannot be 700 kJ, since that is a measure of energy, not power (energy per unit time). This is a basic application of dimensional analysis.
• When determining physical properties, comparing to known substances or similar substances will often yield insight on whether or not the result is reasonable. For instance, most metals sink in water, so the density of most metal should be greater than that of water.
• Fermi estimates will often provide insight on the order of magnitude of an expected value.

src: cdn.shopify.com

Software development

In software development, the sanity test (a form of software testing which offers "quick, broad, and shallow testing") determines whether it is possible and reasonable to proceed with further testing.

Software sanity tests are synonymous with smoke tests. A sanity or smoke test determines whether it is possible and reasonable to continue testing. Sanity tests exercise a subset of application functions needed to determine whether the systems are accessible and the application logic is responsive. If the sanity test fails, it is not reasonable to attempt more rigorous testing. Sanity tests are ways to avoid wasting time and effort by quickly determining whether an application is too flawed to merit any rigorous testing. Many companies run sanity tests on an automated build as part of their software development life cycle.

Sanity tests may be a used as an aid to debugging software. Consider, an application or piece of software usually involves multiple subsystems between external input and output from the system. When the overall system is not performing as expected, a sanity test may be used to aid decisions of what to investigate next. If one subsystem is not giving an expected result, other subsystems might be eliminated from the further investigation.

A "Hello, World!" program is often used as a sanity test for a development environment. If the program fails to compile or execute, the supporting environment likely has a configuration problem. If it works, any problem being diagnosed likely lies in the actual application in question.

Another, possibly more common usage of 'sanity test' is to denote checks which are performed within program code, usually on arguments to functions or returns therefrom, to see if the answers can be assumed to be correct. The more complicated the routine, the more important that its response be checked. The trivial case is checking to see that a file opened, written to, or closed, did not fail on these activities - which is a sanity check often ignored by programmers. But more complex items can also be sanity-checked for various reasons.

Examples of this include bank account management systems which check that withdrawals are sane in not requesting more than the account contains, and that deposits or purchases are sane in fitting in with patterns established by historical data - large deposits may be more closely scrutinized for accuracy, large purchase transactions may be double-checked with a card holder for validity against fraud, ATM withdrawals in foreign locations never before visited by the card holder might be cleared up with him, etc.; these are "runtime" sanity checks, as opposed to the "development" sanity checks mentioned above.

src: f4.bcbits.com

See also

• Proof of concept
• Back-of-the-envelope calculation
• Software testing
• Mental calculation
• Order of magnitude
• Fermi problem
• Checksum
• Certifying algorithm

src: f4.bcbits.com

References

Source of the article : Wikipedia

Offshore bank

src: www.hfsoffshore.com

An offshore bank is a bank regulated under international banking license (often called offshore license), which usually prohibits the bank from establishing any business activities in the jurisdiction of establishment. Due to less regulations and transparency, accounts with offshore banks were often used to hide undeclared income. Since the 1980s, jurisdictions that provide financial services to nonresidents on a big scale, can be referred to as offshore financial centres. Since OFCs often also levy little or no tax corporate and/or personal income and offer, they are often referred to as tax havens.

With worldwide increasing measures on CFT (combatting the financing of terrorism) and AML (anti-money laundering) compliance, the offshore banking sector in most jurisdictions was subject to changing regulations. Since 2000 the Financial Action Task Force issues the so-called FATF blacklist of "Non-Cooperative Countries or Territories" (NCCTs), which it perceived to be non-cooperative in the global fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.

An account held in a foreign offshore bank, is often described as an offshore account. Typically, an individual or company will maintain an offshore account for the financial and legal advantages it provides, including:

• Greater privacy (see also bank secrecy, a principle born with the 1934 Swiss Banking Act)
• Little or no taxation (i.e., tax havens)
• Easy access to deposits (at least in terms of regulation)
• Protection against local, political, or financial instability.

While the term originates from the Channel Islands being "offshore" from the United Kingdom, and while most offshore banks are located in island nations to this day, the term is used figuratively to refer to any bank used for these advantages, regardless of location. Thus, some banks in landlocked Andorra, Luxembourg, and Switzerland may be described as "offshore banks".

Offshore banking has often been associated with the underground economy and organized crime, tax evasion and money laundering; however, legally, offshore banking does not prevent assets from being subject to personal income tax on interest. Except for certain people who meet fairly complex requirements (such as perpetual travelers), the personal income tax laws of many countries (e.g., France, Malaysia, and the United States) make no distinction between interest earned in local banks and that earned abroad. Persons subject to US income tax, for example, are required to declare, on penalty of perjury, any foreign bank accounts--which may or may not be numbered bank accounts--they may have. Although offshore banks may decide not to report income to other tax authorities and have no legal obligation to do so, as they are protected by bank secrecy, this does not make the non-declaration of the income by the taxpayer or the evasion of the tax on that income legal. Following the 9/11 attacks, there have been many calls to increase regulation on international finance, in particular concerning offshore banks, tax havens, and clearing houses such as Clearstream, based in Luxembourg, which are possible crossroads for major illegal money flows.

Video Offshore bank

Offshore banking comparison by jurisdictions

The most popular offshore financial centres are in jurisdictions with a history of political and economic stability. In terms of offshore banking centres and in terms of total deposits, the global market is dominated by Switzerland and the Cayman Islands. A letter by the District Attorney of New York, Robert M. Morgenthau, published by The New York Times, states that the Cayman Islands has US$1.9 trillion on deposit in 281 banks, including 40 of the world's top 50 banks, although official statistics published by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority suggest the amounts held on deposit are actually around US$1.5 trillion. Numerous other offshore jurisdictions also provide offshore banking to a greater or lesser degree. In particular, Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man are known for their well regulated banking infrastructure. Some offshore jurisdictions have steered their financial sectors away from offshore banking, as difficult to properly regulate and liable to give rise to financial scandal.

Weakened bank secrecy

Since starting to survey offshore jurisdictions on April 2, 2009, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) at the forefront of a crackdown on tax evasion, will not object to governments using stolen bank data to track down tax evasion in offshore centers, such as in the 2008 Liechtenstein tax affair. The recent sharing of confidential UBS bank details about 285 clients suspected of willful tax evasion by the United States Internal Revenue Service was ruled a violation of both Swiss law and the country's constitution by a Swiss federal administrative court. Nevertheless, OECD has removed 18 countries, including Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg, from a so-called "grey list" of countries that did not offer sufficient tax transparency, and has re-categorized them as "white list" countries. Countries that do not comply may face sanctions.

A notable exception is Panama, whose canal provides it with a unique type of immunity to international pressure. Given the enlargement of the canal to accommodate larger shipping, it is unlikely that Panama would succumb in the foreseeable future to international pressure toward transparency. A team of journalists took in their hands the task of providing data on Panama offshores with the initiative known as the Panama papers.

List of offshore financial centres

Maps Offshore bank

Scope of offshore banking

Offshore banking constitutes a sizable portion of the international financial system. Experts believe that as much as half the world's capital flows through offshore centers. Tax havens have 1.2% of the world's population and hold 26% of the world's wealth, including 31% of the net profits of United States multinationals. An estimated £13-20 trillion is hoarded away in offshore accounts.

Some $3 trillion is in deposits in tax haven banks and the rest is in securities held by international business companies (IBCs) and trusts. Among offshore banks, Swiss banks hold an estimated 35% of the world's private and institutional funds (or 3 trillion Swiss francs), and the Cayman Islands (1.9 trillion US dollars in deposits) are the fifth largest banking centre globally in terms of deposits. However, recent data by the Swiss National Bank show that the assets held by foreign persons in Swiss bank accounts declined by 28.1% between January 2008 and November 2009.

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Banking advantages

• Offshore banks can sometimes provide access to politically and economically stable jurisdictions. This will be an advantage for residents of areas where there is a risk of political turmoil, who fear their assets may be frozen, seized or disappear (see the corralito for example, during the 2001 Argentine economic crisis). However, it is often argued that developed countries with regulated banking systems offer the same advantages in terms of stability.
• Some offshore banks may operate with a lower cost base and can provide higher interest rates than the legal rate in the home country due to lower overheads and a lack of government intervention. Advocates of offshore banking often characterize government regulation as a form of tax on domestic banks, reducing interest rates on deposits. However, this is scarcely true now; most offshore countries offer very similar interest rates than those that are offered back home.
• Offshore finance is one of the few industries, along with tourism, in which geographically remote island countries can competitively engage. It can help developing countries source investment and create growth in their economies, and can help redistribute world finance from the developed to the developing world. But equally, well-resourced and developed countries such as New Zealand offer a safe and well administered background for these financial services.
• Interest is generally paid by offshore banks without tax being deducted. This is an advantage to individuals who do not pay tax on worldwide income, or who do not pay tax until the tax return is agreed, or who feel that they can illegally evade tax by hiding the interest incomes.
• Some offshore banks offer banking services that may not be available from domestic banks such as anonymous bank accounts, higher or lower rate loans based on risk and investment opportunities not available elsewhere.
• Offshore banking is often linked to other structures, such as offshore companies, trusts or foundations, which may have specific tax advantages and first security bank solutions incorporated in particular jurisdictions.

src: offshorebankingsservices.files.wordpress.com

Banking disadvantages

• Offshore bank accounts are sometimes less financially secure than domestic ones. For example, in the banking crisis which swept the world in 2008, some savers lost funds that were not insured by the country in which they were deposited. Those who had deposited with the same banks onshore received all of their money back. In 2009, The Isle of Man authorities were keen to point out that 90% of the claimants were paid, although this only referred to the number of people who had received money from their depositor compensation scheme and not the amount of money refunded. In reality, only 40% of depositor funds had been repaid: 24.8% in September 2009 and 15.2% in December 2009.

Both offshore and onshore banking centres often have depositor compensation schemes. For example: The Isle of Man compensation scheme guarantees £50,000 of net deposits per individual depositor, or £20,000 for most other categories of depositor. Potential depositors should be aware that any deposits over the guaranteed amount are at risk. However, only offshore centres such as the Isle of Man have refused to compensate depositors 100% of their funds following bank collapses. Onshore depositors have been refunded in full, regardless of what the compensation limit of that country has stated. Thus, banking offshore is historically riskier than banking onshore.

• Offshore banking has been associated in the past with the underground economy and organized crime, through money laundering. Following September 11, 2001, offshore banks and tax havens, along with clearing houses, have been accused of helping various organized crime gangs, terrorist groups, and other state or non-state actors. However, offshore banking is a legitimate financial exercise undertaken by many expatriate and international workers.
• Offshore jurisdictions are often remote, and therefore costly to visit, so physical access and access to information can be difficult. This problem has been alleviated to a considerable extent with the advent and realization of online banking as a practical system.
• Offshore private banking is usually more accessible to those with higher incomes, because of the costs of establishing and maintaining offshore accounts. However, simple savings accounts can be opened by anyone and maintained with scale fees equivalent to their onshore counterparts. The tax burden in developed countries thus falls disproportionately on middle-income groups. Historically, tax cuts have tended to result in a higher proportion of the tax take being paid by high-income groups, as previously sheltered income is brought back into the mainstream economy. The Laffer curve demonstrates this tendency.
• The Bank Secrecy Act requires U.S. Taxpayers to file a Department of the Treasury Form 90-22.1 Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR: Each person or entity (including a bank) subject to the jurisdiction of the United States having an interest in, signature, or other authority over one or more bank, securities, or other financial accounts in a foreign country must file an FBAR if the aggregate value of such accounts at any point in a calendar year exceeds $10,000. (31 CFR 103.24). A recent District Court case in the 10th Circuit may have significantly expanded the definition of "interest in" and "other Authority".
• Offshore bank accounts are sometimes touted as the solution to every legal, financial, and asset protection strategy, but the benefits are often exaggerated.

src: financialtribune.com

European crackdown

In their efforts to stamp down on cross border interest payments EU governments agreed to the introduction of the Savings Tax Directive in the form of the European Union withholding tax in July 2005. A complex measure, it forced EU resident savers depositing money in any country other than the one they are resident in to choose between forfeiting tax at the point of payment, or allowing notification by the offshore banks to tax authorities in their country of residence. This tax affects any cross border interest payment to an individual resident in the EU.

Furthermore, the rate of tax deducted at source will rise in 2008 and again in 2011, making disclosure increasingly attractive. Savers' choice of action is complex; tax authorities are not prevented from enquiring into accounts previously held by savers which were not then disclosed.

In 2013, the European Union's Economic and Financial Affairs Council passed new European Union (EU) directives that bankers in EU member states will share their clients' identities and transaction records automatically. This action was also encouraged by other important countries such as Australia and the US. This has been reported by most offshore service providers offering services outside of the European Union.

On 27 May 2015, Switzerland signed an agreement with the EU that will align Swiss bank practices with those of EU countries, and in effect will end the special secrecy that EU-resident clients of Swiss banks had enjoyed in the past. Under the agreement, both Switzerland and EU countries will automatically exchange information on the financial accounts of each other's residents from 2018.

src: offshorebankingsservices.files.wordpress.com

Banking services

It is possible to obtain the full spectrum of financial services from offshore banks, including:

• Savings accounts
• Corporate administration
• Credit
• Deposit taking
• Foreign exchange
• Fund management
• Investment management and investment custody
• Debit and Credit Cards
• Letters of credit and trade finance
• Trustee services
• Wire- and electronic funds transfers

Not every bank provides each service. Banks tend to polarise between retail services and private banking services. Retail services tend to be low-cost and undifferentiated, whereas private banking services tend to bring a personalised suite of services to the client.

Scale of potential tax revenue

Assuming even just the lower estimate of £13 trillion on deposit in offshore accounts, if these assets earned an average 3% a year in income for their owners taxable at 30%, then the offshore funds would generate £121 billion in tax revenues, on the assumption that no tax is paid (i.e. no one pays any tax on offshore holdings), and that 100% of those deposits would otherwise have been liable to tax. Projections are often predicated upon levying tax on the capital sums held in offshore accounts, whereas most national systems of taxation tax income and/or capital gains rather than accrued wealth.

Ownership

According to Merrill Lynch and Capgemini's "World Wealth Report" for 2000, one third of the wealth of the world's "high-net-worth individuals" -- nearly $6 trillion out of $17.5 trillion -- may now be held offshore. A large portion, £6.3tn, of offshore assets, is owned by only a tiny sliver, 0.001% (around 92,000 super wealthy individuals) of the world's population. In simple terms, this reflects the inconvenience associated with establishing these accounts, not that these accounts are only for the wealthy. Most all individuals can take advantage of these accounts.

src: www.banksinstruments.com

Money laundering

The IMF has said that between $600 billion and $1.5 trillion of illicit money is laundered annually, equal to 2% to 5% of global economic output. Today, offshore is where most of the world's drug money is allegedly laundered, estimated at up to $500 billion a year, more than the total income of the world's poorest 20%. Add the proceeds of tax evasion and the figure skyrockets to $1 trillion. Another few hundred billion come from fraud and corruption. "These offshore centers awash in money are the hub of a colossal, underground network of crime, fraud, and corruption" commented Lucy Komisar quoting these statistics.

The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Los Angeles Times revealed that the United States government, specifically the US Treasury Department and the CIA, had a program to access the SWIFT transaction database after the September 11 attacks (see the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program) diminishing the value of offshore banking for privacy.

src: premieroffshore.com

Regulation of international banks

In the 21st century, regulation of offshore banking is allegedly increasing, although critics maintain it remains largely insufficient. The quality of the regulation is monitored by supra-national bodies such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Banks are generally required to maintain capital adequacy in accordance with international standards. They must report at least quarterly to the regulator on the current state of the business.

Since the late 1990s, especially following September 11, 2001, there have been a number of initiatives to increase the transparency of offshore banking, although critics such as the Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizens (ATTAC) non-governmental organization (NGO) maintain that they have been insufficient. A few examples of these are:

• The tightening of anti-money laundering regulations in many countries including most popular offshore banking locations means that bankers are required, by good faith, to report suspicion of money laundering to the local police authority, regardless of banking secrecy rules. There is more international co-operation between police authorities.
• In the US the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) introduced Qualifying Intermediary requirements, which mean that the names of the recipients of US-source investment income are passed to the IRS.
• Following 9/11 the US introduced the USA PATRIOT Act, which authorizes the US authorities to seize the assets of a bank, where it is believed that the bank holds assets for a suspected criminal. Similar measures have been introduced in some other countries.
• The European Union has introduced sharing of information between certain jurisdictions, and enforced this in respect of certain controlled centers, such as the UK Offshore Islands, so that tax information is able to be shared in respect of interest.
• The Bank Secrecy Act requires that Taxpayers file an FBAR for accounts outside of the United States that have balances in excess of $10,000
• FATCA (the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) became law in 2010 and "targets tax non-compliance by US taxpayers with foreign accounts [and] focuses on reporting by US taxpayers about certain foreign financial accounts and offshore assets [and] foreign financial institutions about financial accounts held by U.S. taxpayers or foreign entities in which U.S. taxpayers hold a substantial ownership interest."

Joseph Stiglitz, 2001 Nobel laureate for economics and former World Bank Chief Economist, told to reporter Lucy Komisar, investigating on the Clearstream scandal:

"You ask why, if there's an important role for a regulated banking system, do you allow a non-regulated banking system to continue? It's in the interest of some of the moneyed interests to allow this to occur. It's not an accident; it could have been shut down at any time. If you said the US, the UK, the major G7 banks will not deal with offshore bank centers that don't comply with G7 banks regulations, these banks could not exist. They only exist because they engage in transactions with standard banks."

In the 1970s through the 1990s, it was possible to own your own personal offshore bank; mobster Meyer Lansky had done this to launder his casino money. Changes in offshore banking regulation in the 1990s in the form of "due diligence" (a legal construct) make offshore bank creation really only possible for medium to large multinational corporations that may be family-owned or -run.

src: www.zeroplusfinance.com

See also

• Bank secrecy
• Banking in Singapore
• Banking in Switzerland
• Corporate haven
• List of finance topics
• Private bank
• Tax haven
• Dominica
• Citibank IPB Singapore
• Panama Papers

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References

src: c8.alamy.com

External links

• Economist Interview about Offshore Banking
• Commentary - Washington Times
• Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, OECD

Source of the article : Wikipedia