MBNA
May 31st, 2008 at 1:47 am (Uncategorized, Credit Cards, Financing, Banking)
Our life is a turnover of money. Wherever we go we need money to pay for goods and services. First coins, then paper money and now… plastic…
Credit cards. A credit card is a system of payment. It is named after the small plastic card. The card is issued to users of the system. The issuer lends money to the user to be paid later to the merchant. It is different from a charge card, since it does not require the balance to be paid off in full each month. It allows the consumer to ‘revolve’ his/her balance with the interest being charged. Almost all credit cards are issued by local banks or Credit Unions. They are of the same shape and size as indicated by the Standard. Credit Cards are issued after an account has been approved by the credit provider. The validity of the card is verified using a credit card payment terminal or Point of Sale (POS) system. One of the largest credit cards issuers was MBNA.
MBNA.
MBNA Corporation was a bank holding company. MBNA was also a parent company of the wholly owned subsidiary MBNA America Bank, N.A. The corporate office of MBNA was headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware. In 2005, Bank of America completed the acquisition of the company. It was the largest independent credit card issuer in the world, specializing in affinity cards. MBNA was founded in 1982 by Charles Cawley as a regional bank holding company in Baltimore, Maryland. Originally, it was a Maryland Bank, N.A., a subsidiary of Maryland National Bank. The name MBNA was derived as an abbreviation or acronym of Maryland Bank, National Association. In 1989, Maryland Bank changed the name to MBNA America Bank. In 1991, MBNA Corp. separated from Maryland National and became an independent company.
Since the credit card trends developed rapidly, the company had to expand and developed new facilities, including several important new regional marketing centers in Atlanta, Dallas, Cleveland, and Maine. The company operated an affiliate in Europe. MBNA was one of the prime movers in lobbying for the passage of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005. MBNA was one of the 2004 Frontline PBS companies special concerning unfair business practices by credit card companies.