American Express Credit Card Issuer Partnerships
American Express announced two major bank credit card issuing partnership deals this week: Bank of America and HSBC.
In both deals the removal of each bank from the list of defendants in the litigation American Express is pursuing (re: damages associated with MasterCard and Visa losing the US antitrust case) may have been an important element.
Note that both MBNA (who began issuing American Express co-branded credit cards over a year ago) and Citibank (who begins issuing in mid-January) are American Express credit card issuing partners and were never named in this litigation.
Here's a summary of the status of the various credit card-issuing banks (or their successors) named as defendants in the litigation that American Express filed on November 15, 2004 against MasterCard, Visa, and the banks -- along with Citi and MBNA who were not parties to the litigation.
| Issuing Bank | Current Role | Announced | Issuing |
| Bank of America | Amex Partner | Dec. 2005 | Mid-2006 |
| Capital One | Defendant | ||
| Citi | Amex Partner | Dec. 2004 | Jan. 2006 |
| JP Morgan Chase | Defendant | ||
| HSBC (Household) | Amex Partner | Dec. 2005 | Mid-2006 |
| MBNA (to be BofA) | Amex Partner | Jan. 2004 | Nov. 2004 |
| USAA | Amex Partner | May 2005 | 2Q-2006 |
| US Bank | Defendant | ||
| WaMu (Providian) | Defendant | ||
| Wells Fargo | Defendant |
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