1st USA unit joining Litle in cards pact.

Continuing its strategic alliances and acquisitions, First USA Merchant Services Inc. has entered a pact with Litle & Co., a leading credit-card processor for direct-marketing firms.

The division of First USA Inc. recently agreed to sponsor Litle's access to Visa and MasterCard.

Previously, Litle funneled its transactions through National City Processing Co., the Louisville- and Phoenix-based subsidiary of National City Corp. of Cleveland.

For First USA Inc., the nation's sixth-largest merchant processor, this represents penetration into a new industry, direct-marketing merchants.

Litle, based in Salem, N.H., handles credit-card transactions for more than 600 mail-order and telemarketing merchants.

A Processing Expansion

"Direct marketing has never been a market that we've gone after," said Pamela Patsley, the president and CEO of First USA Merchant Services. She stressed that this does not indicate "a move to sign direct marketers," but instead to broaden First USA's processing range.

"This new relationship give us the ability to process credit card-deposit transactions with greater flexibility," Thomas J. "Tim" Litle, the company's chairman, said in a news release. "This agreement will fuel growth and will enable Litle and Co. to enhance its strategic position in the marketplace."

The seven-year-old company handles 71 million payment transactions every year, totaling about $4.4 billion.

Keith Kennedy, Litle's operations-improvement manager, estimated that this represents about 21% to 23% of the total direct marketing sales from credit cards.

Litle's clients include Hanover House, 800 Flowers, Columbia House, and Rivertown Trading.

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