The card processor Total Systems Services Inc. could come out a winner in Bank of America Corp.'s deal for MBNA Corp., an analyst says.
TSYS spokesman Eric S. Bruner said last week that was too early to talk about how the merger would affect his company, which is 81% owned by Synovus Financial Corp. of Columbus, Ga.
"As soon as we know more, we will be eager to discuss it," Mr. Bruner said.
The investment firm Sandler O'Neill & Partners LP said B of A would probably move the MBNA accounts to TSYS. That is what the Charlotte company did with the FleetBoston Financial Corp. card portfolio after buying Fleet in April 2004.
MBNA processes its retail accounts in-house. Mr. Bruner said TSYS processes commercial cards for MBNA in addition to its outsourced work for B of A.
In a note sent to clients Thursday, Sandler O'Neill's Kevin Fitzsimmons wrote that B of A had said on a conference call that it remained pleased with the TSYS relationship.
The analyst also said outsourcing is growing in the card market, as shown by Capital One Financial Corp.'s decision in May to move its in-house processing to TSYS.
B of A is TSYS' second-largest customer, after JPMorgan Chase & Co. TSYS won a contract last October to process that account for two years while JPMorgan Chase prepares to move the work in-house.
Even so, TSYS has had its setbacks. In June it lost the contract to process the giant Sears, Roebuck and Co. merchant card portfolio to First Data Corp.
TSYS had been handling the Sears cards for several years before Citigroup Inc. acquired the Sears portfolio in 2003.
