The lending industry is comprised of a wide variety of sectors, such as banking, credit cards, mortgages, leasing and consumer finance. Many of these sectors have interconnections and synergies. In addition, a large number of related services and technologies have a major influence on the lending and credit business. These services include e-commerce, credit risk analysis, call centers and information technologies. Rapid changes have taken place in lending in recent years. For example, large amounts of business and consumer debt are now syndicated or securitized. Meanwhile, non-bank firms, such as GE, have become immense competitors in the lending arena, and international acquisitions are shaping up the globalized banking industry of the near future. This carefully-researched book (which includes a database of leading companies on CD-ROM) is a banking, credit and mortgages market research and business intelligence tool-- everything you need to know about the business of banking, credit cards, mortgages and lending, including: Money center banks; Regional banks; Savings associations; Globalization of the banking and lending industries, including our profiles of nearly 350 of the world’s leading international banking firms; Mortgage banking and brokerage; Home equity loans; Credit cards; Lending and other services provided by non-bank enterprises; Significant trends in banking and lending technologies; Risk analysis, payment processing, call centers and other support services; Online banking trends; ATM trends and technologies; Banking industry software.