Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Daniel Perlin - Wachovia Securities.
Daniel Perlin - Wachovia Securities
It sounds like you’re moving into some of the smaller ISO channels and I’m wondering to what extent do those smaller ISOs rely in terms of selling some of their incremental equipment utilizing third-party lessors? And the second part of that question is, are you prepared if at all to step in since you’re financially much more viable than maybe some of their lenders?
Paul R. Garcia
The first part of the question in terms of moving into that channel, we really pursued ISOs of all sizes from small, medium to large full liability 50/50 and zero liability so I’m not sure there’s a shift there, just how we’ve historically signed more smaller ISOs than larger ones on a frequency basis.
I think in terms of the terminal buys, I haven’t heard anything recently to suggest that it’s problematic to get credit to purchase and then lease or just outright lease. We haven’t had ISOs at least in the US coming to us and asking but I would suggest if they were, I think we would be amenable to it but the credit markets are changing rapidly these days so I think we’ll stay tuned and continue to try to support that channel with as much support as we have historically.
Daniel Perlin - Wachovia Securities
On the HSBC UK venture, you’ve owned it only for a short period of time but I’m just wondering, there’s been a lot of incremental moving parts as we’ve seen some pretty significant deterioration in a lot of economies overseas. I’m just wondering to what extent are you trying to manage that? Are you seeing any changes in the market over there? And then if you could maybe just comment about how you’re rolling out in terms of the Asia-Pacific platform consolidation?
Paul R. Garcia
I’ll take the HSBC question and Jim, I’ll ask you to deal with the AP conversion. In terms of the HSBC question, they were number three in the market and they were kind of marking time. And although management had a number of I think really excellent ideas, they weren’t in a position to implement a lot of innovation. That’s one of the reasons the bank felt this was such a good idea.
They reached out to us and of course we happily did this, and there is a fair amount of low-hanging fruit, is the answer to the question. Although there are pressures in every economy around the world and we’re in uncharted territory so let’s see where this goes, but right now we’re seeing nice growth from that business and as I said we’re taking advantage of some of the low-hanging fruit including adding some sales resources in places that could support them readily. So it’s looking pretty good.
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