First Data 2007 Annual Report Download - page 144

FIRST DATA CORPORATION
NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Continued)
Segment Description
Merchant
Services
Will be comprised of businesses that provide services which facilitate the merchants' ability to accept credit, debit, stored-value and loyalty
cards. The segment's processing services include authorization, transaction capture, settlement, chargeback handling, and internet-based
transaction processing. Merchant services also provide POS devices and other equipment necessary to capture merchant transactions. A
majority of these services are offered to the merchants through joint ventures or other alliance arrangements primarily with financial
institutions and pertain to transactions in which consumer payments to merchants are made through a card association (such as Visa or
MasterCard), a debit network, or another payment network (such as Discover).
Financial
Services
Will provide issuer card and network solutions and payment management solutions for point of sale and recurring bill payments. Issuer card
and network solutions include credit and retail card processing, debit card processing and network services (including the STAR Network),
and output services for financial institutions and other organizations offering credit cards, debit cards and retail private label cards to
consumers and businesses to manage customer accounts. Payment solutions include check verification, settlement and guarantee services
(including TeleCheck) and other payment options that support merchants and online retailers, businesses, and government agencies. The
segment's largest components of revenue consist of fees for account management, transaction authorization and posting, network switching,
check acceptance and warranty, as well as reimbursable postage. In addition to issuer card and core payment solutions, Financial Services
will offer services to improve customer communications, billing, online banking and consumer bill payment, and analytics.
Prepaid
Services
Will consist of businesses that provide a wide range of open and closed loop stored-value products and processing services. The closed loop
operations comprise the largest component of the segments revenue, providing gift card processing services to large national merchants as
well as fleet services to trucking companies. The open loop products are the fastest growing component of the segment driven primarily by
employers' adoption of the Money Network payroll product.
International Will be comprised of businesses that provide the following services outside of the United States: credit, retail, debit and prepaid card
processing; merchant acquiring and processing; ATM and point-of-sale ("POS") processing, driving, acquiring and switching services; and
card processing software. The largest components of the segment's revenue are fees for facilitating the merchants' ability to accept credit,
retail and debit cards by authorizing, capturing, and settling merchants' credit, retail, debit, stored-value and loyalty card transactions as well
as for transaction authorization and posting, network switching and account management.
Integrated
Payment
Systems
Will involve the issuance of official checks and money orders by agents which are typically banks or other financial institutions. Official
checks serve as an alternative to a bank's own disbursement items such as cashiers or bank checks. Revenue is principally earned on invested
funds which are pending settlement.
Note 18: Quarterly Financial Results (Unaudited)
As discussed in Notes 1 and 19, NYCE, PPS, IDLogix, Taxware and Western Union are presented as discontinued operations. The 2006 quarterly
amounts have been adjusted to reflect this presentation.
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