ABN Amro Bank NV will deepen its relationship with MasterCard International by issuing more cards under the MasterCard name and offering more MasterCard-branded products and services, the companies announced Monday.
The Amsterdam company already issues more MasterCards than Visa cards. It said in a press release that it will tilt its portfolio even more toward MasterCard in all but one of the 60 countries in which it does business, including the United States.
The exception is Brazil. A spokeswoman for the bank said it will continue to issue primarily Visa cards there, adding only that ABN Amro's relationship there with Visa has worked well.
Neither ABN Amro Bank (a unit of ABN Amro Holding NV) nor MasterCard would specify how heavily the portfolio will be weighted toward MasterCard either before or after the intended changes.
Paul Lembrechts, an ABN Amro managing director, said in the release: "We believe this agreement will benefit the development of our retail payment card business in all our growth markets. The MasterCard team has already proven it can deliver the products and services that are enabling us to be competitive in markets where ABN Amro was not the first to enter into payment card business."
MasterCard and Visa normally do not issue press releases to announce a loyalty arrangement with a member bank, or a "partnership" deal, as this one was called. A MasterCard spokeswoman, Sharon Gamsin, said it did so this time because ABN Amro told MasterCard that it would "be delighted and pleased if we wanted to put a release out."
Ms. Gamsin said the decisions involved had nothing to do with MBNA Corp.'s announcement in late January that it planned to issue cards on the American Express Co. network and shift some of its portfolio to that brand. MBNA is one of MasterCard's largest members. "This was in the works long before that press release came out," she said.
Anne-Marije Haijtink, a spokeswoman for ABN Amro, said her company will continue to issue both cards but more MasterCards. "If customers want a Visa card they can get a Visa card," she said in a telephone interview.
ABN Amro's two subsidiary banks in the United States are LaSalle Bank Corp. of Chicago and Standard Federal Bank Corp. of Troy, Mich., which have relatively small portfolios of both debit and credit cards.
Ms. Haijtink said MasterCard was chosen over Visa because of the bank's "positive experience" with it and "the support we've received from MasterCard.
Gary Flood, the executive vice president of global key accounts at MasterCard, said in the announcement: "ABN Amro has asked us to work with them to expand its current card product range, to increase the profitability of its current card products, and to make inroads in key markets and customer niches," including new markets.
Avivah Litan, the vice president and research director of financials services for Gartner Inc. of Stamford, Conn., said, "Every time one of these deals is made, there's usually a lot of money that changes hands."
