GLG News by CheckFree Experts

Desktop virtualization has always been an enticing proposition, but it was never able to overcome the practical limitations, and more importantly never gained acceptance from the user base.  However, the proliferation and acceptance of browser based applications, proliferation of...

Money transfer Goliath Western Union is moving to co-opt the threat posed by hybrid mobile phone/stored value card person-to-person remittances. At a minimum Western Union’s new service is a validation of remote mobile phone-based money transfer and makes it likely it will achieve meaningful market...

In 2001 there were 165 companies selling 223 solutions to banks, thrifts and credit unions.Today there are 71 companies selling 306 solutions. That’s 57% fewer companies; 37% more solutions.During the past seven years there were a total of 162 mergers and acquisitions in the account processing sector...

However it is resolved Neiman Marcus’s ugly spat with HSBC is a harbinger of a deteriorating credit environment and of Neiman Marcus’s coveted private label (P/L) credit card portfolio being in play in 2010.

MasterCard, which has long been a laggard in the US pin-debit market, continues to improve its offer and match-up against Visa, Star, NYCE, Pulse and Accel. It’s now positioned to move from the back of the pack and through additional processing to capture more of its transactions’ value.  

Washington Mutual (WaMu) cut a deal with TPG and other investors for a $7 billion capital injection by issuing common stock and preferred convertible stock. In addition, 1st quarter write offs of $3.5 billion contributed to an estimated first quarter loss of $1.1 billion. Clearly WaMu needs capital,...

Discover continues to play a relatively weak hand well against American Express, MasterCard and Visa. In Diners Club it acquired a meaningful international acceptance network, increased visibility and volume for its underappreciated network business, and added a payment brand decidedly different from...

Congress is on the brink of causing enormous damage to the card payments industry. The “Credit Card Fair Fee Act of 2008” would convert it into a regulated public utility. Small merchants’ access to MasterCard and Visa products would be curbed. Cardholders would pay more. And, card issuers, the networks...

The world’s largest consumer finance story GE Consumer Finance (GCF) is entering the final chapter. The first two morsels of GCF’s $175 billion assets spread across 50 countries have just been sold. The next two years will see a feeding frenzy as FIs acquire bits of GCF, bulking up in particular markets,...

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”...