Today's WSJ reports that VISA USA intends to launch a "prepaid" travel card for use in ATMs and POS terminals. The card, meant as an electronic travelers check, would be yet another form of cash substitute. This would, in reality, be a Visa card you could purchase for cash. Presumably US sales of these cards would be subject to cash transaction reporting rules but not those in other countries. Interesting scenario. I buy one of these babies for $100,000 in Switzerland. I arrange to have it not yet "turned on." (Many of the new prepaid phone cards must be activated before they can be used.) I enter the US carrying a card worth $0. I order it activated. Suddenly I have a $100,000 cash card in the US without having imported $100,000 into the US. The nice thing about the explosion of payment forms that is going on right now is that the regulators tend to get swamped. It is hard to regulate things with 10 different payment forms (cash, checks, money orders, travelers checks, credit cards, ATM cards, debit cards, bank wires, consumer electronic money transfers, and bill payment services). When these new cards hit and all of the new electronic banking payment systems are up and running, the Feds will be hard pressed to even keep up with the bare outline of the payments system much less regulate it closely. Duncan Frissell "Dowd's the name, Elwood P. Here, let me give you one of my cards. Don't use that phone number it's the old one use the other number. I'd like you to meet a friend of mine. His name's Harvey. He's a Pooka." --- WinQwk 2.0b#1165