Headlines:
ING Going All-Internet in France
ING Group NV plans to sell off its branch banking outposts in France by midyear and focus on Internet banking there.
The Dutch company said Thursday that it was weighing an offer from Barclays PLC of London for its ING Ferri and ING Private Banking units in France, which have 13 branches and $3.5 billion of assets under management.
The sale, which ING said it expects to take place by the end of the second quarter, would leave it with only Internet banking on the retail side in France, though it would retain a few wholesale banking and asset management businesses.
"Our retail strategy in France will concentrate on ING Direct," said Eli Leenaars, the executive in charge of the company's retail banking worldwide, in a press release. ING Direct is the brand used for all its Internet consumer banking worldwide.
Dailah Nihot, an ING spokeswoman, said in a phone interview that the ING Direct businesses are a major part of its retail banking strategy. "We start ING Direct in a country where we have little banking retail presence" and then offer only a handful of products, she said. In France it offers savings accounts, brokerage services, insurance, mutual funds, and consumer loans online, she said.
The company recently expanded its online business in France by buying the savings accounts of Egg PLC's French business. Prudential PLC of London founded Egg as an Internet bank in 1998 and brought it into France in 2002 by purchasing Zebank from Groupe Arnaud and the European banking group Dexia. But though profitable in England, Egg lost money in France.
Egg relies heavily on credit cards for income, but Ms. Nihot said that its savings accounts were particularly attractive to ING. She said ING usually does not buy other banks.
ING runs online banks under the ING Direct brand in nine countries. In the third quarter, it has said, they were profitable in all but one - the United Kingdom - and there it has predicted profitability by the end of this year.
Settlement for Subpar Billers
The struggling transaction processor Payment Data Systems Inc. said it has signed up with a second authorization and settlement firm to handle accounts its old one would not touch.
The new one, Central Bancard LLC of Davenport, Iowa, is already handling transactions involving seven billers that Network 1 Financial of McLean, Va., declined, according to Michael Long, Payment Data's chairman and chief executive.
Network 1 would not handle some would-be Payment Data Systems customers whose credit "is not exactly pristine," Mr. Long said in an interview Thursday. The multiyear deal, also announced Thursday, was signed two weeks ago, he said, and he expects it to bring in more billers. "We will continue to submit the business to Network 1, and if they find difficulties with the account, we will present it to Central," Mr. Long said.
Payment Data, originally named Billserv, started out focusing on electronic bill payment and presentment. In 2003 it sold off most of its assets and shifted its attention to processing automated clearing house transactions and debit and credit card payments for billers and retailers.
The company posted a third-quarter operating loss of $367,113, 29% smaller than a year earlier, on revenue that had risen 135%, to $69,201.
Cash flow remains poor, and last week the company announced that Mr. Long and three other employees - about half the staff - had agreed to accept common stock in lieu of about six months of unpaid wages.
