To create an entire value chain, American Express segmented its credit card and lending business into three businesses: U.S. card services, international card and global commercial services, and global network and merchant services.

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In 1988, Pierre Mauroy, the city's mayor and a powerful figure in France's Socialist Party, engineered the routing of a new network of domestic and international high-speed train services through Lille and used that coup to turn the city into a logistics and service hub.

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In December, USAID announced a partnership with the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and leading cellular network operator Millicom International S.A. to launch an innovative project to bring mobile financial services to women entrepreneurs throughout Tanzania, Rwanda and Ghana.

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