This time the management is ready she writes

Only idiots would not change. Yesterday, a year and a half after the leadership of Morgan Stanley and fifteen months after be back on the decision taken by its predecessor to separate the activities of Bank of business from those of the activities of credit cards, John Mack, CEO of this giant of finance, has finally decided to give independence to Discover, its subsidiary, concurrent of Visa and MasterCard.

This activity, having represented the last year 13 of the total turnover of the financial group and 14.4 of the result before taxes (read below), will be filialisée and introduced on the stock market without fiscal impact for shareholders. On the logic that prevailed until then, a financial group diversified, both on "general public" activities and business bank, branch found that the time was right to give independence to the issuer of credit cards. Aided in part by a new law on personal bankruptcies, the benefits of Discover, it is true, jumped from 72 in 2006 and the turnover of 24.

Above all, the competitive environment has evolved since the stock market may last of MasterCard and the introduction scheduled for Visa Inc. (not incorporating not Visa Europe).

50 million customers

The transaction should be concluded in the third quarter of 2007 will allow this activity of 50 million customers to continue to compete with Visa and MasterCard in the United States while continuing to push his pawns on the international scene where Discover is currently less present. Discover may also consider external growth operations paid in shares. Susan Roth Katzke Credit Switzerland also believes that the decision "has more sense this time". "Last time, the decision had been made under duress." "This time, the management is ready," she writes.

At the end of the transaction, shareholders will have shares in two financial groups refocused on their core business. They increasingly expect that one or other of the companies will one day be a takeover bid on the part of a group seeking to increase its influence on the American market.

Born in 1997 the Bank of business merger of Morgan Stanley and a diversified financial group active in the brokerage and the credit cards, Discover, the new ensemble renamed Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, has never found its marks. The clash of cultures between a large House of Wall Street and a relatively provincial group of Chicago had caused a continuing animosity between the teams from each camp.

In 2005, dissension had even broke out in the public square. After long months marked by series of senior departures, CEO, Philip Purcell, ex-patron of Dean Witter, had even had to resign before the Board of Directors does eventually remember John Mack.

No.1 two of the group, party after an arm of the railway with Phil Purcell, John Mack is one of the greatest figures of Wall Street. Nicknamed "mack the knife" (the knife), primarily for its ability to make difficult decisions and to cut costs, will be this time around he lie its reputation. Instead of deciding in the bright, it will be expected 18 months before making a decision that the markets were waiting for a long time.