Average Time to Deliver Across Postal Network Steady at 2.6 Days

First Quarter Highlights • Total loans grew $6.9 billion (9%) from the prior year to $82.7 billion. • Credit card loans grew $5.8 billion (10%) to $65.6 billion, on Discover card sales volume of $30.9 billion. • Total net charge-off rate, excluding purchased credit-impaired ("PCI") loans, increased 48 basis points from the prior year to 3.17% and the total 30+ day delinquency rate excluding PCI loans increased 26 basis points from the prior year to 2.23%. • Consumer deposits grew $4.2 billion (11%) from the prior year to $41.3 billion. • Payment Services transaction dollar volume was $56.1 billion, up 19% from the prior year. Click Read More below for additional information.

As ACMA attorneys Martin Eisenstein and Nat Bessey wrote in Part One) of their two-part Legal Corner series to members last month (unlocked version here for non-members too), a major issue for the industry was the effort of the Massachusetts Department of Taxation to apply the Supreme Court’s ruling in South Dakota v. Wayfair retroactively and assess many ACMA members and other remote merchants retroactively for sales tax liabilities for periods prior to the Supreme Court’s decision in Wayfair. Brann & Isaacson is proud to announce that today we received a favorable, and unanimous, decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court invalidating the Department’s assessment. The Court found that absent a physical presence in Massachusetts, the Department did not have the authority to assess sales taxes based upon Internet contacts. The Court held that cookies/apps/content delivery networks do not constitute physical presence. This is a significant victory for the industry and a great holiday present. Thank you to all ACMA members and other companies for your support in this effort. link to full report: https://catalogmailers.org/member-exclusive-acmas-legal-corner-state-and-local-agencies-are-at-it-again-in-sales-tax-actions-pt-1-of-2-2/

Bookstore sales ended the first half of 2017 with a small gain over the comparable period in 2016, according to preliminary estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau. Sales rose by $11 million over the first six months of 2016, hitting $5.06 billion, an increase of 0.2%. The small gain was driven by four consecutive months of modest sales increases in 2017 over 2016 after bookstore results had declined in January and February. In June, sales were up 1.5% over June 2016, reaching $721 million. For the entire retail segment, sales for the first half of 2017 rose 4.0% over the comparable 2016 period and were up 2.2% in June. source Publisher'sWeekly.com