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Discover Financial Services' Discover Network this month will begin to see a slight uptick in volume when transactions for Diners Club International cardholders outside North America now processed by MasterCard Worldwide's network switch to the Discover Network. Rajive Chadha, president of Diners Club International, tells CardLine sister publication Cards & Payments that the processing network-switch was planned when Discover acquired Club last year from Citigroup Inc. for $165 million, and the technological changes needed to accomplish it are now complete. Over the next few months, all transactions from Diners Club cardholders visiting North America will begin to flow through the Discover Network. "In essence Diners Club has been renting card acceptance from MasterCard in North America and now we will handle those transactions through our own network," Chadha says. The amount of volume the Discover Network is likely to see from the switch is likely to "incremental," he says, but notes that the new arrangement is "financially more attractive" for Discover. Diners Club does not disclose the total number of its cardholders. Diners Club cards are issued by 49 different franchisees around the world. Citigroup continues to hold the North American franchise for Diners Club and all of its cardholder transactions in North America will continue to flow through MasterCard, Chadha says.
