Oct. 1, 2009 (PR Newswire) --

DALLAS, Oct. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Alliance Data Systems Corporation (NYSE: ADS), a leading provider of loyalty and marketing solutions derived from transaction-rich data, today announced that the Company has closed $1.3 billion in conduit liquidity facilities.

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The Company's private label credit card banking subsidiary, World Financial Network National Bank, has completed the renewal of its $1.15 billion AAA conduit facility, including additional new capacity of $150 million. The Company also renewed a $150 million AAA conduit facility for its Utah industrial bank, World Financial Capital Bank.

The facilities fund both existing and new private label credit card programs, with only approximately $300 million currently utilized to finance outstanding card assets, and providing a large source of untapped liquidity to fund growth and/or portfolio acquisitions. The Company's private label credit card business currently employs three sources of funding for its roughly $4.3 billion portfolio, representing approximately 100 brands: FDIC-insured CDs, private conduit facilities and term asset-backed securitizations.

Bob Armiak, senior vice president and treasurer of Alliance Data, said, "These latest facility closings further solidify our liquidity position for both current and future funding as needed. We have locked in extremely favorable spreads with these facilities, as rates charged for liquidity have improved dramatically over the past several months.

"We've raised in excess of $4 billion -- via renewals as well as through new vehicles -- thus far in 2009, of which $3.5 billion can be directly utilized for our private label business. The remainder was raised by the Company to finance projects such as our ongoing stock buyback program, and acquisitions for our Epsilon and LoyaltyOne businesses as well as further enhancing our general liquidity position."

Ed Heffernan, president and chief executive officer of Alliance Data, commented, "We are extremely pleased with these transactions and believe that our ability to secure this new liquidity is a continued sign of our lenders' ongoing support and confidence in our business model. These liquidity facilities support our plan of augmenting our private label business by taking advantage of the current favorable funding environment for acquiring high-quality credit card portfolios to supplement our organic growth.