Settlement of the second of the long-running wrangles with the administrators of Ansett Airlines and the costs of absorbing the business into Citi pushed Diners Club into the red in 2008, though the core business of Diners in Australia remains in a slow decline.Financial statements show Diners incurred a loss of $3.1 million in the year to December 2008 from a net profit of $56 million in 2007.Receivables fell 15 per cent to $278 million for the charge card system, presumably reflecting a dwindling share of corporate card business for Diners Club. Revenue fell 10 per cent to $112 million.The financials shows a restructuring provision of $6.3 million in 2008, perhaps reflecting the costs of reorganising the Diners Club operating model as another credit card brand of Citi rather than a stand-alone entity.Legal action brought about an end to Diners Club's long running dispute with Ansett's administrators in February this year over the withholding, by Diners, of ticket revenue paid for with Diners Club cards in the days and weeks prior to the collapse of the airline in 2001.A judgement by a New York arbitrator required Diners Club to pay the administrators $5.25 million. That judgement, plus legal costs, are reflected in the 2008 accounts.While Diners Club has probably lost most market share of the three-party card and credit card schemes, American Express has also conceded some market share.Analysis by MWE Consulting of RBA payments data shows that the market share of Amex and Diners declined to 15.6 per cent in March 2009 (with the data published yesterday). MWE said the share attributed to the four-party schemes (MasterCard and Visa) has grown in each of the last four rolling twelve-monthly periods. MWE noted that RBA data also reveals "reasonable reductions" in the merchant fees collected by American Express and Diners Club. Banks that issued Visa and MasterCard cards are managing to recover some margin in merchant fees, at least on RBA data.