Financial & Business Services News by GLG Council Members

While MasterCard arguably will pay American Express too much, the settlement removes a troubling overhang.   It is time for MasterCard and Visa Inc. to focus their energies on fending off a potentially far more damaging threat: the “Credit Card Fair Fee Act of 2008.”

Best said it believes AIG needs to embark on a companywide strategic and operational review of its businesses.  Every time the tide recedes we find out who was enjoying a cocktail while their swimsuit floated off.  Companies are required to have an annual financial audit.  Why doesn't every CEO, either selfishly for job security or intelligently from a core leadership skill,...

Does anyone want to increase revenue, reduce expenses and increase quality?

Angst about the consumer credit environment and risk associated with GE Consumer Finance’s near-prime retail credit card portfolio, not surprisingly, have given a number of large US card issuers who otherwise should have been keen to bid, cause for pause. Nonetheless, for the right buyer – most likely a European FI such as Barclays, RBS or BNP, and the right price, GE’s US card business is a choice...

The mortgage  insurance industry has suffered horrific losses and is quickly losing ground in a struggle for survival. Triad announced that it will cease insuring new loans.  The three major mortgage insurers (MTG, PMI, RDN) have been downgraded below AA, the minimum rating required by the GSEs (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac).  The GSEs are allowing the MI's to continue insuring...

Conference take-aways: (1) All payment systems – paper checks, truncated checks, pin and signature debit cards and credit cards and ACH are subject to fraud. (2)  Fraud prevention systems need to take a holistic enterprise-wide rather than a point solution approach.       (3) A huge amount of first-person fraud losses are miscategorized as credit losses. undefined·  (4)...

This article describes the strategies companies should take to increase customer value in an economic downturn. During these periods, companies should focus on identifying, understanding and catering to their best and high potential customers thus increasing their value to the organization. The company will still spend less, but it’s skewed toward their better customers. If they don’t, their...

If national markets for second homes are really interlinked, then each market must be driven by common factors. Is this actually true?

Payment by mobile phone is an opportunity waiting to explode. Once the business model is defined it will become another legend in the  history of "disruptive technologies". Mobile phone technology offers significant advantages in security and consumer convenience as a payment engine. However like alternative fuels the technology must overcome  infrastructure and established business...

Execution Excellence - Did you get your Distribution Model in shape while the "rising tide was high and the market was good" or are you now being "exposed, (and it isn't pretty) now that the tide has receded"? Distribution Segmentation - Do you have a superior, more intelligent producer segmentation model than your competitors or are you right smack dab in "industry-average-ville"?