Bank card processor being bought for $1.4 billion

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Tuesday, July 13, 2004 | 9:16 a.m.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Bank of America said today it is buying bankcard processor National Processing Inc. of Louisville, Ky., in a $1.4 billion cash deal that would create the nation's second-largest such company with nearly $250 billion in annual processing volume.

Under the terms of the agreement, Bank of America will pay $26.60 per share for the publicly held company, which will be merged with its Bank of America Merchant Services business.

National Processing's merchant services business processes Visa and MasterCard transactions for some 700,000 merchants in North America. The company also provides financial settlement and reporting services to large and mid-size corporate customers in the travel and health care industries.