Hidden Risks: The Case for Safe and Transparent Checking Accounts

Examines bank practices that put consumers at risk, including lack of information on fees, disproportionate overdraft penalties, and mandatory arbitration or fee-sharing provisions in a legal dispute. Includes a model disclosure box and recommendations

Safety Control Synthesis with Input Limits: a Hybrid Approach

We introduce a hybrid (discrete--continuous) safety controller which enforces strict state and input constraints on a system---but only acts when necessary, preserving transparent operation of the original system within some safe region of the state space. We define this space using a Min-Quadratic Barrier function, which we construct along the equilibrium manifold using the Lyapunov functions which result from linear matrix inequality controller synthesis for locally valid uncertain linearizations. We also introduce the concept of a barrier pair, which makes it easy to extend the approach to include trajectory-based augmentations to the safe region, in the style of LQR-Trees. We demonstrate our controller and barrier pair synthesis method in simulation-based examples.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication at the 2018 American Controls Conference. Copyright IEEE 201

Checks and Balances: Measuring Checking Accounts' Safety and Transparency

Consumers need safe and transparent checking accounts. "Access to mainstream financial services at an insured institution," notes the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., "provides consumers with a safe place to save, conduct basic financial transactions, build a credit history and access credit on favorable terms, and achieve financial security."Previous research from The Pew Charitable Trusts' financial security portfolio also shows that having a checking account allows consumers to better weather economic storms. In addition, these accounts offer consumers the opportunity to enter the financial mainstream by providing access to a savings account and the potential to apply for and manage more sophisticated products such as credit to purchase a car or home.This report reviews the checking accounts offered by 36 of the nation's 50 largest banks according to their practices in three areas: disclosures, overdrafts, and dispute resolution. The study builds on two previous Pew reports. "Hidden Risks: The Case for Safe and Transparent Checking Accounts," released in April 2011, analyzed more than 250 distinct checking accounts offered by the retail subsidiaries of the 10 largest bank holding companies."Still Risky: An Update on the Safety and Transparency of Checking Accounts," released in May 2012, expanded the research of the April 2011 report to include the 12 largest banks and 12 largest credit unions as determined by domestic deposit volume.This study examines and analyzes the data differently from the first two reports. First, Pew collected the checking account disclosures of the most basic account offered by 36 of the 50 largest U.S. banks based on deposit volume as reported by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. These 36 banks comprise almost 56 percent of domestic deposit volume. Account data from the other 14 banks in the top 50 could not be collected because the information was not available online or by mail. For this report, Pew defined bank "best" and "good" checking account practices based on its previous research in the areas of disclosures, overdraft, and dispute resolution policies and practices

Checks And Balances: 2015 Update

Checking accounts are a vital financial tool, utilized by 9 in 10 American households. This report provides the third annual evaluation of disclosure, overdraft, and dispute resolution policies and practices of 45 of the nation's 50 largest retail banks, totaling 66 percent of all domestic deposit volume. Pew's Model Summary Disclosure Box for Checking Accounts served as the template for rating each bank's disclosure documents to determine best or good practices for overdraft and dispute resolution. Additionally, this report identified trends among the 32 institutions examined in all three Checks and Balances reports to date. To ensure that all checking accounts are safe and transparent, Pew has also developed a set of policy recommendations and urges the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to incorporate these policies in new rules on overdraft practices and arbitration clauses

Vehicle Safe-Mode, Limp-Mode in the Service of Cyber Security

This paper describes a concept for vehicle safe-mode, that may help reduce the potential damage of an identified cyber-attack. Unlike other defense mechanisms, that try to block the attack or simply notify of its existence, our mechanism responds to the detected breach, by limiting the vehicle\u2019s functionality to relatively safe operations, and optionally activating additional security counter-measures. This is done by adopting the already existing mechanism of Limp-mode, that was originally designed to limit the potential damage of either a mechanical or an electrical malfunction and let the vehicle \u201climp back home\u201d in relative safety. We further introduce two modes of safe-modemoperation: In Transparent-mode, when a cyber-attack is detected the vehicle enters its pre-configured Limp-mode; In Extended-mode we suggest to use custom messages that offer additional flexibility to both the reaction and the recovery plans. While Extended-mode requires modifications to the participating ECUs, Transparent-mode may be applicable to existing vehicles since it does not require any changes in the vehicle\u2019s systems\u2014in other words, it may even be deployed as an external component connected through the OBD-II port. We suggest an architectural design for the given modes, and include guidelines for a safe-mode manager, its clients, possible reactions, and recovery plans. We note that our system can rely upon any deployed anomaly-detection system to identify the potential attack

Integrating Segmentation and Paging Protection for Safe, Efficient and Transparent Software Extensions

The technological evolution towards extensible software architectures and component-based software development demands safe, efficient, flexible, and easy-touse extension mechanisms to provide protection among software modules residing in the same address space. While a number of software-based approaches have been proposed in the last several years, no clear winner emerges that satisfactorily addresses all the design issues involved in establishing multiple protection domains within an address space. This paper describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of a novel intra-address space protection mechanism called Palladium, which is built upon the combined segmentation and paging protection hardware provided by Intel's X86 architecture. Based on the considerations on application programming and systems implementation complexity, we chose to use slightly different approaches to implement the user-level and kernel-level extension mechanisms. To demonstrate the resulting prototyp..

Ohio Can Design a Leading Prepaid Debit Card for State Tax Refunds: New Approach Can Save Millions, Help Under-Banked Families

Over the last few years, state governments have begun issuing prepaid debit cards rather than paper checks for government payments to individuals. Unemployment compensation, supplemental food assistance (referred to as SNAP or food stamps), and most recently, tax refunds, are being provided by direct deposit or loaded onto prepaid debit cards.1 These electronic transfers and debit cards increase efficiency of payment and decrease state costs compared to paper checks, which fewer states are providing. The first type of transfer, direct deposit, provides a safe, reliable and convenient method of payment for taxpayers with bank accounts. The other electronic option, prepaid debit cards, can help unbanked clients if states get the fees and accessibility right.Ohio is considering legislation, Senate Bill 365, that would allow the state to issue a prepaid debit card as an option for those who do not receive direct deposit for their state tax refund. The state can save money by issuing the cards, but it is essential that Ohio set up a smart structure and appropriately regulate fees associated with the card.2 Getting these details right will ensure that Ohio families and communities fully benefit from tax refunds. This brief provides lessons Ohio can learn from experiences in other states and with existing cards here. According to the Department of Taxation, nearly 40 percent of those receiving state tax refunds -- 1.4 million Ohioans -- opted for a paper check and not direct deposit. Given the numbers of paper check filers, it is imperative that Ohio offers a prepaid debit card that is safe, transparent, and easy to use