New and Noteworthy

• Virtual Worlds @ Work Director in Canada
  Eilif Trondsen, director of SRIC-BI's Virtual Worlds @ Work consortium, recently visited Ottawa to speak to Industry Canada, the Ottawa Center for Research and Innovation, and the National Research Council about the importance of virtual worlds. During his visit, the Ottawa Business Journal and Canadian Television interviewed him about companies' growing interest in the technology. Read the Ottawa Business Journal article: "Living in a virtual world".
• Timely Issues for Financial-Services Companies
  The latest issue of Consumer Financial Decision's (CFD's) newsletter, MacroMonitor Market Trends, highlights areas of interest to financial-services providers in difficult economic times. For example, increases in the number of households with an education loan and in the median balance of such loans create a unique opportunity for financial institutions to provide advice and financial planning to borrowers. In turn, given that the housing downturn makes retirement a daunting proposition for many households, financial-services providers are in a position to advise these at-risk households about becoming better diversified and protecting themselves against downside risk. Read more in the October 2008 MacroMonitor Market Trends.
• Consumers and the Economy
  Financial conditions in the past several years have not benefited the majority of U.S. consumer households. The high cost of essentials, decreased home values, and stock-market volatility are causing most households to rethink their spending, investing, savings, and retirement strategies. As consumers' cynicism grows and increased government oversight looms, financial institutions face ever-growing pressure to increase shareholder value. As a result, their need to understand the consumer has never been greater. Read more in the latest VALS™ report VALS™ Industry Report: Financial Services.

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