The Economy, The Big Bank Mergers, and their Impact on Payments

The Economy, the Big Bank Mergers, and their Impact on Payments Teleconference

November 7, 2008 1:00pm EST (1 hour)
Elizabeth Rowe, Group Director, Banking Advisory Services and David Fish, Senior Analyst, Credit Advisory Services

Please join us November 7, 2008 at 1 p.m. for an overview of the monumental changes currently underway in the financial services sector.

• Recent bank mega-mergers face formidable challenges as they take enormous credit write-downs and integrate their technology systems.
• Moving forward, their vast branch footprints (national or mega-regional) will allow each bank to focus on low-cost, low-risk branch-based card acquisitions.
• The biggest banks are the biggest card issuers and they will slug it out between each other as smaller issuers try to protect their existing portfolios while poaching from their big new neighbors.
• We will see the roll-out of impressive new national and local merchant funded discount networks that will feature huge national brands and strong regional retailers in a Chinese menu of discount options.
• We see a surge of purchasing activity moving from credit to prepaid and debit as consumers try to gain great control over their budgets and increasingly protect themselves from overdraft and other retail banking fees.