Discover Financial Services

Co-branding relationships are an important part of the American Express business model. The costs of renewing and extending these relationships is increasing.

The Walt Disney Company is among those large American companies that have launched back-to-school programs for their employees.

As of September 30, 2016, Visa (V) has reported a total asset balance of $64.03 billion. As of June 30, 2017, the company managed to report a total asset balance of $64.00 billion.

American Express (or Amex) (AXP) has entered into digital partnerships with Airbnb, Facebook (FB), and Uber in order to offset the revenue loss from Costco (COST).

Payment processors are now seeing improved performances on increased spending, new technologies, expansion into global markets, and the stable US dollar.

Visa (V) reported total transactions of $30.2 billion in fiscal 3Q16, compared to $27 billion in fiscal 3Q15—a growth of 11.8% year-over-year.

American Express’s Global Commercial Services’ total revenues net of interest expense fell by 9% to $817 million in 3Q15, forming 10% of its total revenues.

Discover Financial Services (DFS) is a direct bank and electronic payment services company in the US. It offers an array of banking products.

Discover Financial Services (DFS) has two operating segments: Direct Banking and Payment Services. Payment Services is comparatively small.

Of the four American Express segments, the Global Network and Merchant Services segment has shown the highest growth over the last two years.

Cash and checks constitute ~85% of the retail payment transactions worldwide. However, electronic payment methods are increasingly replacing cash and check payments globally.

MasterCard focuses on growth in its core business of credit, debit, prepaid offerings, and processed transactions. It seeks to diversify its customer base, including smaller merchants and consumers who still use cash and checks.