Associates Corp. of North America confirmed this week that it had signed a letter of intent to buy Amoco Corp.'s credit card portfolio.
Chicago-based Amoco is the largest credit card issuer in the oil industry, with 8.6 million accounts and $2.4 billion in annual charge volume.
Associates, a Dallas-based unit of Ford Motor Co.'s financial services group, said a contract to take over the card operations and receivables should be signed within 90 days.
First Retail-Card Venture
Associates intends to take over Amoco's 500-employee card operations center in Des Moines.
Associates issues cobranded cards for other petroleum retailers, including Unocal and Pure Oil. The Amoco deal would be its first retail-card venture.
Associates has a long-term MasterCard-issuing relationship with Amoco, said Frederick H. Stern, senior vice president of Associates.