1. Brought to you by Ginko. ;)

Posted at 11:46AM on Sep 4th 2007 by SqueezeOne Pow

2. There are some interesting issues with this. First, when a customer purchases something from you, the money does not go to you. It goes into a "savings" account that you will hopefully be able to access.
Second, for the normal version of the card that requires no RL financial (Credit Card) information, there is no way for them to collect money from users of this card. So, there could be potentially several thousand people that use this card ( the basic card has a $5000L limit) and do not pay back. According to the terms on this First Virtual site, they will "give you a bad SL credit rating", "possibly report you to LL", and, wait for it... make your name public!
So, in this worst case, First Virtual is out several million $L. Oh, wait! They have this money in the merchants' "savings accounts". So, First Virtual cleans those out, disappears, and the merchants end up having given all their merchandise away to virtual deadbeats.
I'm not saying that this will definitely happen. There's a chance that this is a legitimate attempt at a business. But, with no sort of government, law enforcement, or similar, there's really not much protection for this company or the merchants, and a great market for residents to completely scam this system.
Another fishy-sounding part of what I read at their site was that they will "check your SL credit and employment history". A sphincter says what? There are just too many odd things in this whole setup. So, merchants, if you decide to use this setup, PLEASE limit it to a few small items to make sure you don't get scammed out of your hard work.

Posted at 11:56AM on Sep 4th 2007 by Panthar

3. they will break the tos if you don't pay them by breaking your privacy? lol Xp

Posted at 12:20PM on Sep 4th 2007 by TigroSpottystripes Katsu

4. They appear to be a little hazy on the definition of the term 'securitization' - using it in a way that no accountant, banker or financier that I've ever met would do.

I don't know - a gaffe on such a core financial term doesn't exactly fill me with confidence.

Posted at 12:53PM on Sep 4th 2007 by Tateru Nino

5. Forget this, I'll just buy my lindens from SLex, as I always do.

Posted at 2:43PM on Sep 4th 2007 by Kahni Poitier

6. No way. I'll get my money on SLex, like I always do.

(forgive if this double posts, 1st attempt didn't post for me)

Posted at 2:44PM on Sep 4th 2007 by Kahni Poitier

7. They should have explained what or how you could use the card. Sure... they can say shopping but how does it handle?

Also, as graphic artist and business person.... that card look like fake (crap). I'm sure it won't fly so high.

Posted at 3:22PM on Sep 4th 2007 by Nacon

8. so, did I understood it wrong, or are they really threatening to reveal people's rl name inspite of the reveal of such type of info against someone's will be against the tos?

Posted at 8:16PM on Sep 4th 2007 by TigroSpottystripes Katsu

9. As with Ginko Financial, the domain name firstmeta.com is registered to an individual (in Singapore no less).

I wouldn't touch Ginko with a 10m pole, and I aint touchin' this one either.

Posted at 9:59PM on Sep 4th 2007 by neural

10. Hi all, I'm Tyra Fierrens (RL: Aileen Sim), a co-founder and COO or First Meta.

First, I'd like to assure everyone that we are in no way affiliated to Ginko and we do not endorse or approve of Ginko's business (or other similar businesses) in any way.

First Meta is a RL venture-backed company. We have a RL office, RL staff (you can see all our RL bios on our website) and RL investors that invest in our business.

@Panthar:
It is true that merchants receive their payment in their MetaSavings deposit account. However, merchants get credited immediately after every sale and can at any time withdraw all their deposits. Over 120 SL merchants, including many reputable ones (such as Caliente, DOMAIN and Aitui) have already signed on with us. We are happy to send you a full list. You can find a partial list here: http://www.firstmeta.com/consumers/metacard_stores

We are funding the cards primarily with money from our RL investors.

Yes it is possible that we might get high default rates on the basic card. We manage that risk by limiting the exposure on the basic cards. Even if *touchwood* ALL the basic card holders decide to not pay their bills (although this has not been the case), the total amount we would lose makes up only a small fraction of our total exposure and will not have any significant impact on the company's financial health. Again, we have RL investors funding the company.

@Tateru Nino:
Could you please tell me where you found the term 'securitization'? I checked our T&Cs and am quite sure there isn't any such term. If there is ever such an error, would appreciate if you could point out to us so we can correct it asap. Thank you.

@Kahni Poitier:
Yes, agree that many people will choose to buy L$ from the LindeX or SLX using their RL credit card, but there will also be people who would prefer to pay using a L$ credit card instead (or do both).

@Nacon:
When a cardholder goes to a store that accepts the MetaCard, all he has to do is to right-click on the item that he wants and select 'MetaCard' (the 'touch' function). Item gets transfered to him and no L$ "cash" is deducted from his SL account. Or for shops that don't accept MetaCard, card holders can take a cash advance from our ATMs. We'll be happy to show you a demo if you like. Or you can visit the MetaMall on the First Meta sim.

Our cardholders are not issued a physical card (they don't need one). The image above was a card design created in illustrator.

@TigroSpottystripes Katsu:
No we will not reveal a person's RL name. All personal information is treated with strict confidence. In cases of serious defaults, we do have the option to publish the AV name or to report to LL. However, our course of action will depend on the severity of the case (do they owe us 100L or 100,000L). Also, card holders do agree to the terms when they sign up.

@neural:
The domain www.firstmeta.com is registered to our CEO Douglas Abrams. You can google "douglas abrams first meta" to find out more about his background. We are also in the midst transferring the domain to the company.

---

There is very little or no credit offerings in SL. First Meta is offering credit services because we believe that this can be a viable business.

I appreciate all your questions and comments. Should any one have any more questions, please feel free to contact us and we'll be happy to answer them.

Our contact info:
CEO - JP Mougin douglas@firstmeta.com
COO (me) - Tyra Fierrens aileen@firstmeta.com
VP, Sales & Customer Relations - Joy Laperriere joy@firstmeta.com

Thank you.

~ Tyra

Posted at 11:13PM on Sep 5th 2007 by Tyra Fierrens