All articles by Verdict Staff
Verdict Staff
Japanese card unit is up for grabs
Japans largest bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, has announced it intends to spend about 40 billion ($378.3 million) to acquire a 49 percent stake in JALcard from struggling Japan Airlines (JAL).
Region round-up
Debit cards are not popular in Thailand, according to Kasikorn Research Centre, the research arm of Kasikorn Bank… Independent Isle of Man bank Conister Trust has signed a contract to issue credit cards marketed and serviced by CompuCredits UK subsidiary.
Region round-up
Indias ICICI Bank has launched iMobile, a mobile banking platform that enables customers to use their handsets to transfer funds and pay bills… Lloyds TSB, the UKs fourth-largest bank, has unveiled the first mainstream banking facilities for Muslims in Scotland… The general manager of Visa Europe Turkey, Berna Ulman, said the card association is in talks with the countrys Finance Ministry to prepare incentives to increase debit card use… Total net sales and transaction volumes at ten of the top US e-retailers increased by 29 percent year-on-year during the 2007 year-end holiday shopping season…
PwC points to harder times for credit
Nervous card industry executives have yet more unpalatable news to digest with the publication of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Precious Plastic report, in which a convergence of economic bad news means bad times for the industry.
Thai card issuers cautious for 2008
Thailands card issuers have good reason to have a guarded outlook. Economic and political uncertainty have hit consumer confidence hard and that, coupled with toughening regulation, means issuers are facing rising non-performing loan rates and declining profits.
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Competition heats up in the US
The US card market could be entering a new era of competition, as the changes wrought by the 2004 decision by the US Department of Justice to repeal rules that kept Visa and MasterCard members from using other networks, combined with the associations initial public offerings (IPOs), mean that the major bank networks are vying with American Express and Discover for issuers.A new report by Gwenn Bzard, director of research at financial services consultancy Aite Group, The Future of Card Networks: Gauging Battle-Readiness for a Post-Visa IPO World, predicts that American Express will emerge as a powerful competitor with Visa and MasterCard in the US.Bzard traces the fast-moving changes ushered in following the Justice Departments repeal of the exclusionary rules preventing Visa and MasterCard members from using other networks
Citibank rolls out online rewards portal
Recent legislative changes in Japan have drawn attention to the importance of rewards programmes Now, Citi is expanding its reputation within this area with the launch of a pan-regional online rewards portal that provides an enhanced rewards offering Titien Ahmad reports.The rewards programme can be a winner or loser for card issuers
Discover’s Goldfish founders
The US credit card business said the non-cash impairment charge would be equal to all or substantially all of the goodwill and other intangible assets of its Goldfish business.David Nelms, CEO of Discover, said: We have concluded that continued disruption in the UK financial markets, higher interest rates and our decision to reduce our loan exposure to the UK market have negatively affected the book value of our Goldfish business.Morgan Stanley, which spun off Discover earlier this year, acquired Goldfish in February 2006 for $1.6 billion
Can plastic be environmentally friendly?
Truong Mellor looks at some examples of the new breed of ethical credit cards that has been launched over the past few months from financial services institutions such as GE Money, Barclays and the Co-operative Bank Each product differs in the way it sells its environmental or ethical credentials to the mass market.The past couple of years have been defined, in part, by the rapid embracing of corporate social responsibility by many banks Change has been visible in a number of the ways these financial services companies are now running their businesses: cutting CO2 emissions or using green electricity to run branches; adopting global business standards such as the Equator Principles or the United Nations Environmental Programme Finance Initiative; running andor supporting community and charitable programmes; and, finally, offering retail banking products and services with some ethical or environmental twist.In terms of retail banking products, the main focus has been on ethical credit cards
Credit crunch forces Capital One to abandon NetSpend acquisiton
Capital One announced expected credit losses of between $4.9 billion and $5.5 billion in 2008 (see CI 391), which senior cards analysts said played a large part in the termination of the deal.But the US-based credit card and banking business, which signed a letter of intent with NetSpend to expand their existing relationship, insisted the agreement was wider-ranging than the one they had before A Capital One spokeswoman told CI the business was looking to start selling its products through a wider range of distribution channels.She said: Through the partnership, we will develop and market Capital One prepaid cards through direct mail offers and eventually through retail locations and cheque cashing stores.Instead of the acquisition, Capital One will now acquire a minority interest in NetSpend, and it is expected a Capital One representative will join the NetSpend board of directors.The spokeswoman added: While we have agreed to terminate the planned acquisition, we remain committed to our relationship with NetSpend and we are confident in the viability and strength of our expanded partnership