Ken Lewis, chief executive officer of Bank of America, has spoken of his unhappiness that his bank concentrated in the past on promoting the Visa brand instead of its own in the payment card market. The comment comes as the bank contemplates setting up its own payments network to rival Visa.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Mr Lewis revealed that Bank of America, the leading retail bank in the US, was considering establishing a network to rival that of the MasterCard and Visa duopoly, which the bank helped to create in the 1950s.
The lender made the high profile acquisition of major card issuer MBNA at the beginning of the year, making it one of the largest card issuers globally, and making the establishment of an in-house payment system the next logical step.
Meanwhile, Mr Lewis suggested that his bank was wrong to allow the Bankof Americard brand to slip out of the forefront in favor of the in-house developed Visa brand.
I’m not real happy at this point that we built that brand when we could have been spending money on the Bank of America brand. Why not become the old BankAmericard again?
Bank of America lost control of the Visa business in the 1970s.
Press reports suggest Bank of America could add an extra $70 to $75 million in earnings per year through setting up its own payment operation.