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    • Visa, Mastercard Risk Ramped Up Competition [view article]
      Securitization is the achilles heel to watch - This article misses the point of what makes the credit card industry work; it's called securitization. Visa and MasterCard are merely back room operations for clearing and settlement amongst banks. However, what happens at the banks, that creates the need for Visa and MasterCard, are the loans originated on credit cards. Banks make money by charging loan fees, and over limit fees. And while these are pretty good income streams, they are small on an account basis and costly to manage over time. That changes, though if the loan is packaged with other loans and sold in the stock market: Securitization.

      Given the present low appetite for buying collaterized backed securities, another way of saying Securitization, it may be that the golden goose may soon be out of eggs. Which is a long way to say that there will not be as much need for back room operations from the likes of Visa and MasterCard.

      Until you understand how Securitization will survive, I would stay away from these stocks.
      Mar 27 09:57 AM
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