Macy’s Dumps Trump Over Controverial Comments, He Says It Was His Idea

(Nicholas DiMaio)

What do a southern chef, the owner of a professional basketball team and a candidate in the 2016 presidential election have in common? They’ve all been ditched by brands, retailers and other companies after being accused of making racist comments. The latest addition to the list comes as Macy’s announced it would sever its decades-long relationship with businessman Donald Trump.

CNN reports (warning: link contains video that autoplays) that Macy’s joined the growing list of businesses cutting ties with Trump after he recently made controversial remarks about Mexican immigrants.

The department store plans to begin pulling Trump brand merchandise from its stores, saying it “stands for diversity” and that it has no tolerance for discrimination. It was unclear when or if the company would pull television advertisements in which the presidential candidate appears.

“In light of statements made by Donald Trump, which are inconsistent with Macy’s values, we have decided to discontinue our business relationship with Mr. Trump and will phase-out the Trump menswear collection, which has been sold at Macy’s since 2004,” the company said in a statement.

Following Macy’s announcement, Business Insider reports that Trump announced he wasn’t the ditchee, he was the ditcher – saying it was his idea to end his relationship with the department store.

“I have decided to terminate my relationship with Macy’s because of the pressure being put on them by outside sources,” Trump said in a statement. “While selling Trump ties and shirts at Macy’s is a small business in terms of dollar volume, my principles are far more important and therefore much more valuable.”

The pressure Trump alludes to came in the form of a petition calling for the removal of his products from the department store. The effort on MoveOn.org had garnered more than 700,000 signatures as of Wednesday morning, CNN reports.

Macy’s is just the latest company to distance itself from Trump following his disparaging statements last week.

NBC Universal, which airs the Celebrity Apprentice reality TV show and jointly owns the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageant with Trump, severed ties with the entrepreneur last week.

Trump’s recent rejection by corporate entities is the most recent evidence that companies feel little obligation to stand behind celebrities – or athletes – that allegedly say or partake in controversial behavior.

Last fall, the NFL found itself in the rejected corporate sponsorships arena following several domestic violence scandals.

Specific players – like Adrian Peterson and Ben Roethlisberger – were personally dumped by brands for alleged domestic violence and sexual assault cases.

In the spring of 2014, L.A. Clippers (now former) owner Don Sterling was accused of making racist comments. What followed was a long list of high-profile brands – like CarMax and Virgin America – cutting ties with the NBA team.

And we certainly can’t forget 2013’s Deengate, in which southern chef and restaurateur Paula Deen lost a bevy of endorsement deals, closed several restaurants and had products phased out by Walmart and Target after copping to using racist language in her past.

First on CNN: Macy’s dumps Donald Trump [CNN]
Donald Trump: It was my decision to cut off ties with Macy’s [Business Insider]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Visa, MasterCard Cut Ties With Backpage.com After Pressure From Law Enforcement

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After pressure from law enforcement, both Visa and MasterCard have announced they will no longer process payments for classified ads on Backpage.com. The site has often been criticized for its “Adult” section, which some say makes it easy for pimps and sex traffickers to solicit customers for sex.

Illinois’ Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart sent a letter to both companies on Monday, asking them to bar patrons from using them cards to purchase ads on the site, reports the Wall Street Journal. Dart has been on Backpage.com’s case for some time, tracking solicitations for prostitution. The classified ads site features subcategories in the Adult section like for “escorts,” “male escorts,” “body rubs” and other things.

In his letter, Dart asked MasterCard and Visa to “immediately cease and desist from allowing your credit cards to be used to place ads on websites like Backpage.com, which we have objectively found to promote prostitution and facilitate online sex trafficking.”

“After years of unchecked growth in the online sex trade, it has become increasingly indefensible for any corporation to continue to willfully play a central role in an industry that reaps its cash from the victimization of women and girls across the world,” the sheriff wrote.

MasterCard announced yesterday that it’d be cutting ties with Backpage.com, with Visa following suit today.

“They are being removed as a merchant in our system based on a request from the sheriff’s office that we received,” a MasterCard spokesman said on Tuesday, according to the WSJ.

“MasterCard has rules that prohibit our cards from being used for illegal or brand-damaging activities. When the activity is confirmed, we work with the merchant’s bank to resolve the situation,” the company told the Chicago Tribune.

Visa cited “moral, social and legal” reasons in its decision to cease processing transactions from Backpage.com.

“Visa’s rules prohibit our network from being used for illegal activity,” a company spokesman said in a statement, via USA Today. “Visa has a long history of working with law enforcement to safeguard the integrity of the payment system and we will continue to do so.”

The WSJ cites people familiar with the matter who say American Express previously stopped processing ad payments on the site earlier this year.

This isn’t the first case of cutting straight straight to the middlemen who move the money in an attempt to take down illegal content online: In November, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont wrote to the heads of Visa and MasterCard asking them stop serving file-sharing sites.

MasterCard Stops Processing Purchases of Ads on Backpage.com [Wall Street Journal]
MasterCard says its cards can’t be used to pay for adult ads on Backpage [Chicago Tribune]
Visa follows MasterCard, cuts off business with Backpage.com [USAToday]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Risk Evaluation Report Finds Mobile Banking Leaves Some Banks More Vulnerable to Cyber Attacks

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While mobile banking is no doubt convenient for customers – and banks – there’s a significant downside to the fact that more and more financial institutions are using the technology: an increased risk that your personal information will fall in the hands of a cyber criminal.

A new report [PDF] from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency suggests that banks’ strategies to implement mobile technology often leaves their infrastructure open to cyber attacks, the Chicago Tribune reports.

According to the OCC’s semiannual risk perspective report released on Tuesday, banks are increasingly embracing the use of technology such as cloud computing and mobile banking to stave off the competition.

While the ease of mobile banking and other advances can not only save customers time but save banks money, the OCC found that these systems can “increase exposure to technological and operational risk.”

“Banks and their employees, customers and third-party service providers continue to be vulnerable to cyberattacks that can compromise data or systems or allow criminals to illegally obtain personally identifiable information,” the report states.

The report also found that many banks lacks sufficient response plans if they find themselves on the wrong side of a cyber attack.

“There are many systems out there that have known, existing vulnerabilities that need to be addressed and can be addressed,” Beth Dugan, the OCC’s deputy comptroller for operational risk, tells the Wall Street Journal. “As the larger institutions do put in mitigating controls and strengthen their systems, the bad actors are just going down [to smaller firms] looking for the weakest link.”

In addition to pointing out some financial institutions’ lack of cybersecurity, the OCC’s report found other worrisome issues in the banking industry, mainly in the form riskier of lending.

According to the report, competition pushed banks to make more exceptions to their lending and underwriting policies during the first part of 2015.

The banking regulator said it’s seen a “loosening of standards” – such as less underwriting – across many credit products including business loans, commercial real estate loans and vehicle loans.

“Bankers continue to express concerns about the effects that intensified competition with other regulated financial institutions and nonbank financial firms are having on underwriting standards,” the comptroller wrote.

The OCC says that a change in standards could be seen in the way banks have altered terms for auto loans, specifically extending the life of a loan.

Last month, a report from credit reporting agency Experian found that the average loan terms for new and used vehicles span 67 and 62 months, respectively.

In all, that report found that even longer loans – those with terms lasting 73 to 84 months – are on the rise, with 29.5% of all new vehicles financed with such terms. Long-term used vehicle loans for the same duration represented 16% of that market.

Banks making riskier loans; consumers vulnerable to cyberattacks: report [Chicago Tribune]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist