IN BRIEF: Associates Buys Processor from Morgan Stanley

Associates First Capital Corp. has bought SPS Transaction Services Inc., a payment card processor, from Morgan Stanley, Dean Witter & Co.

The $896 million deal was announced in April and closed Friday. Included were SPS' subsidiaries, SPS Payment Systems Inc. of Riverwoods, Ill., and Hurley State Bank of Sioux Falls, S.D.

SPS caters largely to the retail store card market, managing $2.3 billion of private-label receivables for companies like Radio Shack, Goodyear, and Office Depot.

Associates First of Dallas was spun off from Ford Motor Co. this year and is working to lengthen its extensive roster of private-label card accounts. The company has $6.4 billion of credit card loans and $1.5 billion of private-label balances. -Jennifer Kingson Bloom

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