American Express in alliance

Thursday, Jan. 29, 2004 | 9:08 a.m.

NEW YORK -- In its first major deal since a favorable antitrust ruling in 2001, American Express announced today that it had reached agreement with a big American financial institution to issue its credit cards in the United States.

American Express, which is based in New York, said that MBNA Corp. will issue its own American Express-branded credit cards starting later this year.

MBNA, which is headquartered in Wilmington, Del., bills itself as the nation's largest independent issuer of credit cards, many of them distributed through professional and university affinity programs.

According to data from CardWeb.com., American Express is the top card issuer by charge volume in the United States, with a 12.4 percent market share at year's end. Citibank is second at 11.7 percent, and MBNA is third at 8.7 percent.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

archive