Discover Financial Services Breaks Into Signature Debit Market With Introduction Of Discover® Debit
February 13, 2006
Riverwoods, Ill. – February 13, 2006 – Discover
Financial Services LLC, a business unit of Morgan
Stanley (NYSE:MS), today becomes the first credit
card services company to compete directly with
Visa® and MasterCard® in the rapidly growing signature
debit market. With the launch of Discover® Debit,
Discover Financial Services further positions
itself for growth as it continues its expansion
as a broad-based payments company offering a full
range of products, including credit, PIN and signature
debit, as well as stored value.
Discover
Debit is the first new signature debit program
to be offered to financial institutions since
the ruling in the Department of Justice anti-trust
case in October of 2004. This ruling enables financial
institutions that already issue credit or debit
cards from the bankcard associations to issue
additional cards from other brands. The launch
of Discover Debit also follows Discover Financial
Services' acquisition of the PULSE ATM/debit network
in January 2005, its strategic alliance with China
UnionPay and multiple agreements with third-party
credit and stored value issuers announced in 2005.
“Discover Debit is the first new entrant
into the signature debit market in more than 10
years,” said David W. Nelms, chairman and chief
executive officer of Discover Financial Services.
“Discover's assets, experience and brand strength
offer significant competitive advantages and a
highly appealing alternative for financial institutions,
merchants and consumers. The launch of Discover
Debit builds on this with a new, uncomplicated
approach to signature debit that provides convenience
and broad acceptance to cardholders as well as
security and competitive program features to financial
institutions.”
The Discover® Network
will support two forms of signature debit card
programs: the Discover Debit Card for individuals
and the Discover Debit Business Card.
Discover
Debit breaks the traditional debit card mold by
offering issuers:
· Increased profitability
that results from lower network expenses.
Simplicity in the form of clear, fully disclosed
pricing, less complicated billing and straight-forward
operating regulations and dispute rules
·
A 100 percent online transaction authorization
standard (no “floor limits”)
Discover
Debit cards also will offer proactive fraud prevention
tools and stringent network security features,
as well as zero liability on Discover Debit Cards
for individuals. They will be accepted at any
of the more than 4 million merchant and cash access
locations that accept Discover Network cards.
Discover Debit cards may support both
signature-authorized and PIN-authorized transactions.
Depending on the issuing institution's program
choices, cardholders can use their Discover Debit
cards to purchase goods and services either by
signing a receipt or by entering their PIN at
a point-of-sale terminal. Discover Debit also
can be used to withdraw cash at ATMs across the
U.S. Discover Debit issuers will have the option
of participating in the Discover Financial Services-owned
PULSE ATM/debit network for PIN debit services.
“Discover Debit capitalizes on the potential
created by Discover Financial Services' acquisition
of PULSE, as well as on current growth trends
for debit transaction volumes, which are expected
to surpass credit transactions by the end of this
year,” said Stan Paur, PULSE president and chief
executive officer. “The combination of PULSE's
debit experience and Discover's signature capabilities
has enabled us to create a compelling new choice
for financial institutions, merchants and consumers
in the important and rapidly growing debit market.
We believe Discover Debit will be very appealing
to many of the more than 4,100 financial institutions
that currently participate in PULSE.”
Several
key payment processors have agreed to support
Discover Debit, including NetSpend Corp., Elan
Financial Services, Central National Bank &
Trust Company of Enid (Oklahoma) & Jack Henry
Associates.
Financial institutions may
elect to offer Discover Debit in addition to one
of the other two signature debit products currently
available; participation does not require discontinuation
of any existing relationship with other signature
debit programs.
About Discover
Financial Services
Discover Financial
Services LLC, a business unit of Morgan Stanley
(NYSE:MS), operates the Discover Card with more
than 50 million cardmembers, the Discover Network,
which is the largest proprietary credit card network
in the U.S. with more than 4 million merchant
and cash access locations, and the PULSE ATM/debit
network which serves more than 4,100 financial
institutions and includes more than 3.2 million
merchant terminals and 250,000 ATMs. For more
information, visit www.discovercard.com, www.discovernetwork.com
or www.pulse-eft.com.