Discover’s Q2 results showed a sharp slowdown in the volume processed by its 25 network partners. These are third-party schemes, such as RuPay (India) or SIBS (Portugal), which cobadge with Discover to gain access to its global acceptance network.
In contrast to the strong cross-border growth reported by both Visa and Mastercard, Discover’s network partner volume was down 22% in Q3 to $8.1bn. Management said that Ariba Pay, a longstanding Discover partner which helps businesses settle invoices, was the main contributor to the poor performance in partner volume.
Diners Club International, which is still largely a series of national franchises, also had a challenging quarter, with volume down 5% to $9.4bn. The decline was attributed to unspecified issues in India where the cards are issued by HDFC Bank.
