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Article: Discover financial grapples with drop-offs in volume: discover last year entered the debit card market with its acquisition of Pulse, but its credit card program experienced reductions in accounts and managed card loans.(2006 BANK CARD PROFITABILITY STUDY & ANNUAL REPORT)
- Article from:
- Cards & Payments
- Article date:
- May 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 SourceMedia, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Four months into 2005, Discover appeared headed to the orphanage. Morgan Stanley, Discover's parent company, announced in April last year that it was spinning off Discover Financial Services, the Riverwoods, Ill.-based issuer of Discover.
Chairman and CEO Philip I. Purcell proposed the spin-off to mollify investors. The investors, including many former Morgan Stanley executives, blamed Discover in part for Morgan Stanley's poor financial performance. Purcell had launched Discover in 1986, when he was CEO of Dean Witter, so it was a bitter moment when he told analysts, "It's time for Discover to be on its own."
Purcell's plans to ditch Discover did not ...