MasterCard Worldwide will fight to keep Washington Mutual's debit card portfolio under its brand, Richard G. Lyons, executive vice president and global product group executive, debit and prepaid, told attendees yesterday at SourceMedia's ATM, Debit & Prepaid Forum in Chandler, Ariz. "We have great relations with Washington Mutual," said Lyons in response to a question from CardLine sister publication ATM&Debit News during his keynote address. Lyons said WaMu's debit card portfolio is a strong performer. "My hope is that wisdom will prevail, [and the portfolio will stay with MasterCard's brand]." Referring to the potential changes in debit card branding stemming from bank mergers announced the past few weeks, Lyons added a bit of levity, saying "I'm almost afraid to go to sleep at night." New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co. nearly two weeks ago purchased Seattle-based WaMu, which had filed for bankruptcy protection (CardLine, 9/26). Analysts have speculated that Chase, a Visa issuer, may convert WaMu's debit MasterCard portfolio to the Visa brand. If Chase converts the portfolio to Visa, it could be a major blow to MasterCard's U.S. debit card market share. WaMu, the largest issuer of debit MasterCards, earlier agreed to convert 11 million to 15 million of it debit cards to MasterCard's contactless PayPass brand, which competes with Chase's blink contactless brand. Chase has not disclosed its plans regarding WaMu's debit card portfolio, one of the national five largest.
