PURCHASE, N.Y. – MasterCard yesterday announced it has agreed to pay American Express $1.8 billion to settle an antitrust suit claiming MasterCard and Visa conspired to keep credit unions and banks from issuing AmEx cards.
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Last year, Visa agreed to pay AmEx more than $2.7 billion to settle its case.
The settlements bode well for Discover Financial, which has similar legal claims against MasterCard and Visa.
MasterCard said it agreed to make 12 quarterly payments of $150 million to AmEx. The company plans to book a $1 billion charge related to the settlement in the current fiscal quarter.
The settlement funds will come from a legal defense reserve set up when MasterCard went public two years ago.
