GLG News by Check Processing Experts

Regulators in Europe and elsewhere will continue to ratchet up their interference in the global card payment networks’ business unless and until MasterCard and Visa (V) find effective strategies to stonewall or deter them. While no regulation contemplated would put the networks in the “death spiral”...

ATM’s may think they have on the cutest outfit in town, but merchants and consumers are continuing to chuckle and just move on by.  The convergence of transparency and information are making them much savvier players these days and ATM’s aren’t keeping up.  It’s not just all about interchange,...

My bookcase contains 22 past editions of Automation in Banking.  The 23rd is still in the oven.  The 22 are dog-eared because I have had to refer to them many times to answer questions from very intelligent readers who had a need to know.  Last week I read the 1985 Edition, and here are...

If the “Credit Card Fair Fee Act of 2008” passed, it would devastate the US card payments industry, harming card issuer, network and merchant acquirer economics, to varying degrees. It would also cause higher cardholder fees, reduce payment card transaction and volume growth, and put a damper on payments...

Visa beats expectations to raise $17.9 billion in its IPO and makes the record books as the largest U.S. IPO, amidst a shaky US financial market. Visa's long awaited IPO sparked a great deal of interest from investors  seeking a potential growth opportunity amid a bearish economic climate. In 2006,...

1) Full Disclosure - Mark Mariotti ran a nonstandard auto operation (California admitted MGA with Ohio company underwriting)  in Southern California during the 1970's &  '80s with a direct-marketing model and a non-internet online (yes back then) reservation style quoting system....

As payment transactions increasingly move to non-cash based products, the need to create an interchange system in the U.S. that makes sense for all parties will only grow more urgent.  Merchants have made it perfectly clear they will continue their fight to be recognized as participants in the...

A number of large banks are looking at severely depressed stock prices and multiples that have dropped to book value or below. Is now the time for a buyer to step up and buy a struggling bank? If not, when does it make sense for a buyer to cut a deal? Will existing M & A deals still close? What...

It’s numbers crunching season again for me, and my outlook has been confirmed as if a combined team of Big Four auditors ripped through my databases looking for errors, omissions and even fraudulent opinions.The financial institutions landscape:The number of banks, thrifts and credit unions continues...

1) Amerprise has been aggressive ever since its Personal Advisor and Banking separation from Amercan Express 2) MasterCard appears to be the predominate card network