For flexibility and capital structure planning purposes, we intend to file a Universal Shelf Registration statement in the next few days. Having the Universal Shelf will facilitate an additional avenue for the company to have access to capital, if necessary. We are doing this to ensure we are adequately prepared at any given time, but we have no present intention to issue securities using the Shelf.
Now, let me share some thoughts with you for our fourth quarter. As we have mentioned before, we expect to fall below our long-term minimum average annual net revenue growth objective of 12% on a constant currency basis for 2009.
With respect to contra revenue, keep in mind that it is generally higher in the fourth quarter due to seasonality. Specifically, for the fourth quarter of 2009, we expect our rebates and incentives line to be significantly higher versus the fourth quarter of last year due to new and renewed customer agreements, as well as rebates relating to recently implemented pricing initiatives.
Because of our heightened focus on managing expenses, we continue to expect full year 2009 total operating expenses to be down on a year-over-year basis, including the impact of our severance charges.
With respect to severance, based on new actions that were recently identified, we now expect to incur additional severance charges in the fourth quarter. It is too early to size these charges now, as it is partially dependent on the take up rate for a voluntary program, which we just announced internally to our U.S. based employees.
For advertising and marketing spending, our thoughts remain unchanged, that fiscal year 2009 will be lower than fiscal year 2008 on both and as reported as constant currency basis and that spending in the second half of 2009 will be significantly higher than the first half of the year.
As I said earlier, the lower than expected third quarter advertising and marketing spend was primarily due to the slower redeployment of funds to growth markets and certain other initiatives, which have been shifted to support fourth quarter campaigns. As a result, we now expect the fourth quarter advertising and marketing spend to be about 20% higher than our fourth quarter spend last year.
We now expect our full year 2009 tax rate to be approximately 34%. Since our year-to-date tax rate at 33.6% is lower than this, keep in mind that our fourth quarter rate would have to be higher than the previous quarters. Based on these assumptions, we anticipate that we would be able to achieve at least 20% net income growth for 2009, excluding any impact of severance charges.
Let me now turn the call back to Bob to cover some recent business highlights. Bob?
Robert Selander
Before moving into the Q&A session, I''d like to share with you some of our recent business successes and developments from around the world. We are very pleased to report that last month we renewed and extended our agreement for all of our issuing business with one of our largest customers, Banc of America. We look forward to working with Banc of America to grow our mutual businesses and to reinforce our already strong relationship.
In the U.K., we launched a co-brand card program with Banc of America and Amazon. This innovative new card, which targets the E-Commerce space, allows customers to apply and make purchases online immediately after their application has been approved.
In the U.S., we signed a long-term extension of our agreement with Continental Airlines related to the U.S. issuance of both credit and debit co-brand cards offered primarily by Chase. We are excited to continue this program, which strongly appeals to affluent card holders as they can leverage our global acceptance for international travel.
I''m also pleased to announce that U.S.A.A. will be implementing our MasterCard integrated processing solutions, our world class debit and prepaid processing platform. U.S.A.A. will employ the full capabilities of the platform''s network and issuer processing services to support signature debit, pin debit and ATM transactions.
Turning to some other results within our core debit and prepaid areas in the United States, we have renewed and extended our agreement with one of our largest debit issuers, People''s United Bank. Both our consumer and small business debit is included within the scope of this agreement. We look forward to a continued strong relationship with People''s United.
Fifth Third Bank is now issuing World Debit MasterCard cards which is the only premium debit card product in United States that gives massive affluent consumers access to enhanced rewards, unique offers and savings opportunities. Fifth Third is the second issuer to launch World Debit MasterCard since we launched this platform in the spring.
Underscoring our strength in prepaid, in September, MasterCard, Wal-Mart and First Data launched a new payroll card program for Wal-Mart and Sam''s Club employees in the United States. The Electronic Payroll Program will include the deployment of the Money Network MasterCard pay card and electronic pay stubs which will cut down on paper consumption and provide associates easier access to their wages.
According to a Mercator Group, this represents the largest U.S. payroll card implementation.
Additionally, I''m pleased to announce an agreement with Univision Communications, the nation''s leading Spanish language and media company to introduce prepaid programs that are being developed to provide U.S. Hispanic consumers with access to valuable financial tools. The prepaid programs will be available nationally in 2010.
Finally, I''d like to recognize some key developments related to our inControl platform and our latest activities in the mobile space. Citi has become the first customer to implement the inControl purchase control application globally with local currency issuance and settlement in nearly 50 countries.
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