Category: General

The national health insurance brokerage market is worth $18 billion.

The Mercator Advisory Group estimated that the volume of transactions on general-purpose prepaid cards totaled more than $4 bln in 2008. It forecasts an increase to $7.2 bln in 2009 and $10.8 bln in 2010.

Europe as a region has the highest adoption of mobile services at 121% penetration and this is expected to rise to 135% by 2012. At these high penetrations, overall service revenue growth through the handset is expected to decline. However, ARPU is expected to continue growing among business users. In a new market data product from ABI Research, overall business revenue is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 4%, a significant statistic considering that ARPU from consumer mobile services will stay flat at a CAGR of 0.1%.

According to Berg Insight, the number of fleet management systems deployed in commercial fleets in Europe was 1.3 mln in Q4 2008, an increase of 23.8% YTY. Growth is expected to continue in 2009 but the annual growth rate is projected to decrease to 15.4%.

More than 7% of 401(k) assets at year-end 2007 were invested in lifecycle funds and one-quarter of 401(k) participants held lifecycle funds, according to Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and the Investment Company Institute (ICI).

NanoMarkets projects that after a few lean years in 2009 and 2010 for the TFPV business higher growth rates will return in 2011. The firm’s analysis projects revenues of $4.6 bln in 2011 that will grow to just over $14 bln in 2015.

AAA says 41 mln Americans were expected to travel more than 50 miles for the holiday, down about 1.5% or 600,000 people from Thanksgiving 2007. Of those, about 4.5 mln are expected to fly, down about 7% from 2007, while around 33.2 mln will drive, a decrease of about 1%. It is the first decrease in holiday travel nationally since 2002, and the largest since the Thanksgiving that followed the terror attacks on September 11, 2001.

The number of government-backed loans for small businesses fell by 30% in 2008 as owners struggled with tighter credit and a shaky economy, US Small Business Administration reported. The total value of loans fell 13% to $17.96 bln, while average loan size rose by $41,000 to $183,000.

51% of US small business owners said conditions for their businesses were getting worse, up from 44% in August, the credit card firm said. Another 73% said the U.S. economy was getting worse, up from 60%. Only 7% said they felt the economy was improving, an all-time low for the monthly surveys.

UK population is expected to increase from its current figure of 61 mln to almost 77 mln in 2060 – a rise of 25%. This would make it the largest population in the EU, ahead of the projections for France (72 mln) and Germany (71 mln). Eurostat predicts the EU population will be 506 mln in 2060, up from 495 mln in 2008. It is expected to peak at 521 mln in 2035 but then decline.

The 1,000 largest US public companies in 2007 took 41 days on average to collect payments from their customers, up from 39.7 days a year earlier and 39.2 days in 2001, REL and CFO Magazine found.

Although 75% of surveyors cite poor service as their main complaint, Philadelphians are the most generous tippers in the nation, leaving 19.6% versus the countrywide average of 19.0%. In comparison, diners in New York City tip the average 19.0% and in Los Angeles they tip 18.4%, Zagat found.

The US Census Bureau released a report that estimates that 45.7 mln Americans were uninsured in 2007 compared to 47 mln in 2006. The US Census report found that more people were covered by government health insurance programs – increasing from 27% in 2006 to 27.8% in 2007. During this period, the number of people covered by government health insurance increased to 83 mln up from 80.3 mln in 2006. At the same time, the share of people covered by employer-sponsored health insurance coverage decreased to 59.3% in 2007 from 59.7% in 2006.

US consumers are currently holding about 45 mln credit cards issued by US banks that reward their users with frequent-flier miles, according to The Nilson Report.