TowerGroup Analysts are quoted daily in major media publications and trade journals for their independent and thought-provoking perspectives. Read some of the many selections featuring TowerGroup's recent coverage in the news.

The following are selections of TowerGroup's recent coverage in the news:

National

American Banker
July 9, 2008

Tier Focusing on Payments with Sale
Jennifer Roth, a senior analyst in the global payments practice at TowerGroup Inc., a Needham, Mass., independent research firm owned by MasterCard Inc., said the strategy of shedding nonpayment businesses makes sense.
"The amount of revenue, year over year, was beginning to decrease" in Tier's nonpayment business lines, Ms. Roth said. "Executive management decided to put those up for sale and focus on a business that was growing exponentially."

Digital Transactions
July 09, 2008

Visa Rule Change Means Little Change for Web-Based PINless Debit
"The EFT networks need to get involved," says Jennifer Roth, research director of global payments at Needham, Mass.-based TowerGroup Inc., an independent research unit of MasterCard Inc. "They're not involved in it today."
But PINless debit is evolving quickly, adds Roth's colleague, Brian Riley, TowerGroup's director of bank card research. "It's a very new area," he says, noting that Interac, Canada's national PIN-debit network, is upping its threshold for PIN entry to $50. While Interac doesn't operate directly in the U.S., its change shows how a network can make POS PIN-debit more attractive to consumers and merchants.

CreditCards.com
July 8, 2008

Fed's G.19 report shows credit card use rebounded in May
"You've got a lot of lousy dynamics going on here," agrees Dennis Moroney, research director with TowerGroup, a research and advisory services firm. "What's affecting people more and more is the cost of energy."
Another factor may also be at work. Banks have increased minimum credit card payments over recent years, meaning borrowers must come up with added cash each month. This may not have been a problem when people were paying their monthly balances in full, but now that they are forced to revolve, it is. "When people start to pay the minimum amount, it will be higher," Moroney says. "If they don't meet the minimum payment, they go delinquent."
"I expect delinquencies are going to continue to rise," Moroney says. If consumers are to get a handle on their debt, "something's got to give somewhere," he says.

Star Tribune
July 5, 2008

Analysts snub Fair Isaac
Since then, "the future of sell-side research remains bleak amid enormous pressure from the tough economics of the research business, bolstering of internal research by buy-side firms, and independent research providers knocking hard on the buy-side door," Dushyant Shahrawat wrote in a 2007 TowerGroup report.

The Washington Post
July 5, 2008

Small firms flounder amid credit card debt
Card issuers are becoming more careful. "The mantra before was bigger is better in the card business. Now (issuers) are becoming much more risk averse," said Brian Riley, research director for bank cards at TowerGroup. "Standards are getting tightened in line with the economy."

---

International

CFO Asia
July 2008

Perceptive Postmortem
UBS comes clean about subprime
UBS may have felt compelled to come clean because its shareholders, used to its solid, stable private-banking business, were rocked by the volatility that has accompanied the firm's move into investment banking. And the firm may have sensed that the time was right to fess up. After all, "there are few times in history when you can take a US$7 billion or US$8 billion write-down without anyone blinking an eye," says Rob Hegarty, managing director of securities and investments with TowerGroup.

TowerGroup has appeared in the following publications over the past several weeks:

Top-Tier/General Business Press
CFO Asia, July 2008
The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, CA), July 5, 2008
Bloomberg TV (UK) (Broadcast), July 7, 2008
Newsday, July 7, 2008
CNBC.com, July 8, 2008
Forbes.com, July 8, 2008
MarketWatch.com, July 8, 2008
Yahoo! Finance, July 8, 2008
CNBC.com, July 9, 2008
Forbes.com, July 9, 2008
MarketWatch.com, July 9, 2008
Yahoo! Finance, July 9, 2008
BBC Radio 5 Live Wake Up (UK) (Broadcast), July 12, 2008

Technology Trade Publications
TMCNet, July 7, 2008
CRM Today, July 9, 2008
Call Centre Clinic (UK), July 10, 2008
ebiz Q presents BPM in Action, July 10, 2008

Financial Services Publications
Inside Reference Data (Counter Party Data Special Report), June 2008, 2008
Insurance-canada.ca, June 3, 2008
The Banker, July 2008,
e-Forex, July 2008,
Credit Union National Association (CUNA), July 2, 2008
CalculatedRisk, July 7, 2008
Bobsguide.com, July 8, 2008
CreditCards.com, July 8, 2008
FML eXchange, July 8, 2008
National Mortgage News, July 8, 2008
StreetInsider.com, July 8, 2008
StreetInsider.com, July 8, 2008
American Banker, July 9, 2008
The Asian Banker, July 9, 2008
Banking Business Review, July 9, 2008
Bobsguide.com (UK), July 9, 2008
BusinessIntelligence.com, July 9, 2008
Credit & Collections World, July 9, 2008
DataMonitor, July 9, 2008
Digital Transactions, July 9, 2008
Finextra.com (UK), July 9, 2008
Finextra.com (UK), July 9, 2008
Finextra.com (FINBLOG), July 9, 2008
FML eXchange, July 9, 2008
StreetInisder.com, July 9, 2008
The Trade News, July 9, 2008
ATM Marketplace, July 10, 2008
Finextra.com, July 10, 2008
Pensions &Investments, July 10, 2008

Regional Publications
Pennsylvania CPA Journal, July 1, 2008
Minneapolis Star Tribune (Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN), July 5, 2008
The Seattle Times (Seattle, WA), July 5, 2008
The Times-Tribune (Scranton, PA), July 5, 2008
The Washington Post (Washington, DC), July 5, 2008
Centre Daily Times (State College, PA), July 8, 2008
Centre Daily Times (State College, PA), July 8, 2008
The Dallas Morning News (Dallas, TX), July 8, 2008
The News Journal (Wilmington, DE), July 8, 2008
The Peninsula (Qatar), July 8, 2008
Pittsburgh Tribune Review (Pittsburgh, PA) , July 8, 2008
Pittsburgh Tribune Review (Pittsburgh, PA), July 9, 2008
The Dallas Morning News (Dallas, TX), July 9, 2008

Miscellaneous Corporate or Content Sites/Publications
Vshygopalakrishnan.blogspot.com, July 4, 2008
Ad-Hoc-News, July 8, 2008
Ad-Hoc-News, July 8, 2008
EARTHtimes.org, July 8, 2008
EARTHtimes.org, July 8, 2008
Morningstar, July 8, 2008
Smart Brief, July 8, 2008
SOX Television, July 8, 2008
StarWeb.fi, July 8, 2008
Ad-Hoc-News, July 9, 2008
EARTHtimes.org, July 9, 2008
Morningstar, July 9, 2008
SOX Television, July 9, 2008
StarWeb.fi, July 9, 2008
HomeAtmPinDebitblog.com, July 9, 2008
Industry News Alert, July 9, 2008
ThaiPR.net, July 9, 2008
CUSecurity.blogspot.com, July 9, 2008

Miscellaneous Press Announcements
Carolina Newswire, July 8, 2008
Business Wire, July 8, 2008
PR-Inside.com, July 8, 2008
PR-Inside, July 9, 2008