Verizon Helps International Specialty Products Become Greener With Paperless Billing

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. – April 20, 2011 –

As business customers continue to turn to Verizon for a wide range of communications and IT solutions to drive better outcomes, they are finding a strong environmental partner in the process.

For example, by choosing Verizon's e-billing solutions, International Specialty Products Inc. has been able to transition a majority of its invoices to online billing.  As a result, ISP has eliminated more than 80 of its invoices each month, improving its operational and cost efficiencies.

Typically, an enterprise's monthly telecommunications bill can fill many boxes with paper, and consume significant amounts of energy as bills are transported from one location to another.  By reducing paper and associated transportation, Verizon's customers are able to reduce their carbon footprints while streamlining business procedures.   Moving to e-billing has helped Verizon customers eliminate more than 290 tons of paper yearly.

"As a leading global supplier of specialty chemicals and performance-enhancing products for an array of industries around the world, ISP is utilizing the e-billing solution to not only control costs, but also to reduce paper consumption and the amount of CO2 emitted during the traditional billing transportation process," said  Eileen Bostonian, telecommunications billing analysis and coordinator at ISP.  "By working with Verizon, we have leveraged their e-billing solution to help enhance the efficiency of our business operations while simultaneously reducing our carbon footprint."

For each of its customer's billing accounts that have been converted to paperless billing, Verizon has donated funds to the American Forest's Global Releaf program.  Through this initiative, more than 100,000 trees have been planted since 2007, with 70,000 planted in 2010 alone.

"Paperless bills are more useful to our customers in terms of both business and green benefits," said Mark Chodoronek, executive director of Verizon's e-commerce and digital customer enablement.  "In addition to meeting their environmental goals, companies like ISP can make more informed decisions about their communications and information technology spending by analyzing billing data in a user-friendly digital format."

Verizon's e-billing solution makes monthly bills more useful to its customers -- from security and ease of use, to streamlining operations efficiencies and increasing productivity.  The e-billing solution also enables customers to efficiently analyze data and create reports, and to have access to Verizon's Global Billing report, which is available in 10 languages.

Verizon provides e-billing solutions via the Verizon Enterprise Center, its award-winning online customer portal where customers can provision, manage, order and pay bills for their wireline and wireless services.  The online tool, available via secure access 24/7, offers a host of applications that support a full business lifecycle and enable businesses to save time, control costs and manage communications services.  A virtual tour of the Verizon Enterprise Center is available here.

Verizon is a global leader in driving better business outcomes for enterprises and government agencies. Verizon delivers integrated IT and communications solutions via its high-IQ global IP and mobility networks to enable businesses to securely access information, share content and communicate. Verizon is rapidly transforming to a cloud-based "everything-as-a-service" delivery model that will put the power of enterprise-class solutions within the reach of every business.  Find out more at www.verizonbusiness.com.

About ISP
International Specialty Products Inc. (ISP) is a leading global supplier of specialty chemicals and performance enhancing products for a wide variety of personal care, pharmaceutical, beverage and industrial applications. ISP produces more than 500 specialty chemicals, which it markets and sells worldwide. The company's headquarters is located in Wayne, New Jersey, USA.

About Verizon
Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, NASDAQ:VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers.  Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, serving 94.1 million customers nationwide.  Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America's most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers innovative, seamless business solutions to customers around the world.  A Dow 30 company, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of more than 194,000 and last year generated consolidated revenues of $106.6 billion.  For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

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Could Ratings Firms Become Irrelevant? - Fox Business

Europe wants to do what the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill so far has not – curb the influence of the big three credit rating firms.

After issuing a sharp chorus of criticism of Moody’s Investors Service for downgrading Portuguese debt earlier this week, European bankers on Thursday said they would accept Portuguese-backed debt regardless of its rating.

The European Central Bank’s decision to waive a minimum rating required to accept collateral for credit from Portugal is a clear slap at Moody’s, but also at the two other big U.S.-based rating firms, Fitch and Standard & Poor’s.

In effect, Europe is telling the firms that their services may no longer be required.

Germany, seeking to take things a step further, has called for the creation of a European rating agency.

It’s been a long time coming. Criticism of the broad influence wielded by the three firms has grown louder since the financial crisis of 2008. That criticism has now escalated to a full-throated roar in Europe.

“They don’t want to be held hostage by credit rating agencies’ decisions,” said Brian Dolan, chief currency strategist at Forex.com.

The pushback by European bankers is understandable for a couple of reasons. First, there was a widespread perception in Europe that the timing of Moody’s decision to downgrade Portuguese debt only served to exacerbate an already-bad situation.

Furthermore, the decision seemed to confirm suspicions held by many European fiscal decision-makers that the credit firms are harder on European-issued debt than they are on debt issued in the U.S.

“It seems strange that there is not a single rating agency coming from Europe. It shows there may be some bias in the markets when it comes to the evaluation of the specific issues of Europe,” European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told reporters shortly after the Moody’s downgrade.

Other European leaders described the big three U.S. credit rating firms as an “oligopoly,” defined as a market or society ruled by a small powerful group of elites.

European Central Bank President Jean Claude Trichet said “a small oligopolistic structure is not what is ... desirable at the level of global finance.”

James Gellert, CEO of Rapid Ratings International, explained that the firms have been targeted by critics in both the U.S. and Europe for several years, but “the rhetoric in Europe has been a little more emotional, and lately even more so.”

Indeed, the criticism in Europe borders on “xenophobic,” he said.

Gellert said he doubts the big three ratings firms are biased against European issued debt. Rather, Gellert sees “a greater speed to act on potential downgrades,” which he views as a likely reaction to criticism that the firms were too slow to downgrade ahead of the 2008 crisis.

Gellert sees some irony in calls for a European ratings firm that would ostensibly view European issued debt more favorably than U.S. ratings firms. Such a move would merely replace one form of bias with another, he noted.

The backlash from Europe seems to be bringing to a head an issue that has faded somewhat in the U.S. as the 2008 financial crisis has slipped further into the rearview mirror.

The U.S. credit ratings firms were widely cited as significant and active players in the years leading up to the collapse of the global housing market. Without their approval in the form of AAA ratings, Wall Street could never have packaged and sold trillions of dollars worth of mortgage-back securities chock full of loans that would eventually go sour.

To most bond investors, a AAA rating by Moody’s, Fitch’s or Standard & Poor’s is virtually a guarantee that the security is safe.

But they badly misjudged the subprime mortgage market and their critics believe it was no mistake. A lot of evidence suggests the firms knowingly rubber stamped risky securities with their highest ratings because it was profitable to do so.

Dolan said there is legitimate cause to wonder “why anybody should listen to them any more” given their failure to “detect the earlier crisis.”

He said skeptics of the firms point to their business model in which the firms are paid by the very companies whose debt they are rating.

“They get paid by the issuers of debt,” he said. “The ECB views that as a conflict of interest.”

So do a lot of other people.

A key aspect of the Dodd-Frank bill passed last summer was legislation that called for an overhaul of how debt is rated. Broadly, the bill sought to make the ratings firms more accountable for the accuracy of their ratings, making them potentially liable if they screw up again as badly as they did on the millions of subprime mortgages on which they bestowed their highest ratings. 

One idea floating around recently was to create a model in which the firms were paid by investors rather than issuers. The profits wouldn’t be nearly as healthy but it would eliminate obvious conflicts of interest and perhaps help prevent another financial crisis.

A curious aspect of the Dodd-Frank bill, however, is that it’s a fluid piece of legislation, meaning it set goals whose details still have to be wrangled over by regulators and law makers.

Not only has that dulled momentum in favor of reform but it’s given the ratings firms time to fight back against significant changes. All three have reportedly hired armies of lobbyists, and the SEC has since backtracked on some of its tougher rhetoric regarding oversite of the firms.

So is the current European backlash a watershed moment in how global debt is issued and rated?

Dolan said there’s no question the credibility of the big three U.S. firms “was irreparably damaged” during the 2008 crisis. “But until a viable alternative is established, they’re still the primary voice on credit risk,” he said.

In any case, Dolan said the controversy will likely cause competitors to enter the market, which will be beneficial over the long-term but only after those new firms earn their stripes and gain credibility.

“In the beginning it could be cacophonous so we’ll need to find out later who the best reviewers are, and that’s probably a multi-year process,” he said.

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