Card Briefs: Morgan Witter Unit Nets $9.9M in Quarter

SPS Transaction Services Inc., which is being sold to Associates First Financial Corp., said it earned $9.9 million in the first quarter.

At 36 cents a share, its net was up 33% from a year earlier, though net operating revenues fell 9%, to $82.3 million.

"It's a great beginning to 1998," said Robert L. Wieseneck, president and chief executive officer. "For the balance of the year, we will work toward effecting a smooth transition to the Associates and continue our focus on increasing revenues while maintaining our profit margin."

The company, now 73.3%-owned by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., said electronic transactions in the quarter totaled 114 million, up from 102 million in the 1997 period.

Owned and securitized credit card loans declined by $200 million from yearend 1996, to $1.7 billion at March 31. Active consumer private-label credit card accounts declined 11% year-over-year, to 2.9 million.

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