After the market close today, American Express announced its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2008.

Overall Amex cardholder spending declined 10% year over year - or 5% when adjusted for foreign exchange rates. In the US, card billed business (including cash advances) declined 8% year over year, falling from $123 billion to $112.7 billion in the fourth quarter 2008. In terms of average cardholder spending, Amex reported it declined 15% to $2,792 for the quarter. The average merchant discount rate remained essentially unchanged at 2.53%.

NCR has launched "a new web-based service for easier and faster management and processing of envelope-free deposits at ATMs. With Intelligent Deposit ATMs already making up more than 70 percent of its 2008 U.S. SelfServ ATM orders, NCR believes its new service – NCR APTRA Deposit Gateway – will significantly help the next wave of financial institutions move to image-based ATMs. NCR APTRA Deposit Gateway is a web-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution that enables financial institutions to perform check image processing for envelope-free deposits made at the ATM." READ MORE

First Data Corp. has a growing collection of white papers in its Thought Leadership Library covering a wide range of payments-related topics. The latest papers include:

• Mobile Account Management: The Mobile Commerce Enabler - by Barry McCarthy, President, Mobile Commerce Solutions
• Innovations in Payments and Decoupled Debit Reshape the Power of Merchant Loyalty Programs - by Timothy Horton, Vice President of Product Management
• Financial Institutions Must Rethink Their Remote Deposit Capture Support Models - by Kathleen Houseman, Vice President, Remote Deposit Capture Solutions, and Mark Nevle, Director, Product Development

American Express Global Commercial Card has released a new study "detailing how companies are instituting best practices and driving savings to control their costs in an economic downturn. Working with Accenture, American Express interviewed a number of Fortune 500 companies in industries ranging from consumer products to business services. These companies had median gross revenues of $30 billion, and were identified as having leading T&E spending policies." (Full study here ). READ MORE

After a brief rebound in December, economic confidence among small business owners dipped in January as fewer owners plan to increase spending for business development. The Discover Small Business Watch index fell to 71.4 in January, down 1.4 points from December. READ MORE

Monitise Americas has announced new research results finding that "Americans are increasingly demanding 'always on' information about their money, with 77% saying that it was important for them to have real-time and immediate information regarding their bank and credit card accounts." READ MORE

Wells Fargo has launched the Wells Fargo Card Design Studio service - saying it "gives consumer and business customers the option to customize the design of their Wells Fargo Check Cards or Credit Cards." READ MORE

• Seeking Alpha: American Express Company Q4 2008 Earnings Call Transcript
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