Question-and-Answer Session
[Operator Instructions]. And we do have a question from the line of Julio Quinteros with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Julio Quinteros - Goldman Sachs
That was close. It's Julio Quinteros from Goldman Sachs. First of all, can you just walk us through the check services business and what's happening there? We had previously stripped that out. I am trying to understand what the affect of that is across revenues and EBITDA and possibly even EPS? In other words, how much drag is in that, I am assuming it it's still in the numbers for calendar 08 at this point?
Jeffrey S. Carbiener - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Yes. It is still in the numbers for calendar year 08 at this point in time. And what we are seeing in the check business is a faster movement away from check writing into other forms, such as debit and other electronic forms of payment. And what we also saw in the fourth quarter I think is often with check writers, they are the first to feel the signs of any economic changes. So, we will see check writing pullback. And in Q4, we saw our volumes scale back quite a bit from our previous run rates which impacted revenue. And they have a heavy impact on margins because typically it is the good check writers that are pulling back and you still have your fraud. Therefore, your operating costs exist and you have margin degradation and that's really what we are looking at. Now, when we look forward which those trends, Q4 is really where you feel the burns of it because if you look at check services profits, nearly 40% of the profit base is in Q4 because of the segment volume. So, looking forward, it doesn't have as much of an impact when you look into 08.
Julio Quinteros - Goldman Sachs
But... sorry, so what's the plan in terms of the divestiture?
Jeffrey S. Carbiener - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Right now, we've taken the existing check business and we are evaluating the sale in three pieces. One is our gain cash business, one is our Australia business and the rest is our North American core business. We are well down the road on the sales process on the first two pieces I mentioned and we are still in the process in the North American core business.
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