MBNA, a huge credit-card issuer, is launching such a system with Orbiscom, an Irish software supplier.
More big companies--including Wal-Mart, Home Depot, JPMorgan Chase, PNC Bank, MBNA, United Technologies and Eaton--have filed suit.
Lloyds and MBNA did say they were looking at whether they might provide the same service as Barclaycard.
His late father, Al Lerner, had also been chairman of MBNA and was a significant shareholder in the company.
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MBNA's shares had been drifting up for weeks, but no one expected a deal so big or so soon.
MBNA, Providian Financial and Metris Companies, which sold themselves to big banks and thus already enjoy cheap sources of funds.
MBNA, an American-owned outfit that is one of Britain's biggest credit-card issuers, has criticised the new procedures as too forgiving.
Of the major issuers, MBNA America, Capital One, FleetBoston and Wachovia don't impose fees, and most community banks and cooperatives don't either.
"It was not our intention to offend anyone, and we apologize if anyone was offended by the card, " MBNA spokesman Jim Donohue said.
The bank, the largest credit card issuer, since its 2006 acquisition of MBNA, says it's all part of its "periodic" review of customer credit risk.
That leaves MBNA (nyse: KRB - news - people ), another giant in the cards business, as a possible winning buyer, says analyst Bove.
Meanwhile, MBNA announced Friday that it would discontinue its "Spirit of America" MasterCard, which features a photograph of three firefighters hoisting the American flag at Ground Zero.
In recent years, it has turned its focus on building credit cards (buying MBNA Corp. earlier this year, for example), private banking, capital markets and other nondeposit intensive businesses.
Money Box found that most of Barclaycard's big rivals, including RBS Advanta, Lloyds, MBNA and Capital One, are not actively telling people to contact them before they travel abroad.
All this is going on as Lewis strikes deals to buy credit card company MBNA (nyse: KRB - news - people ) and a stake in China Construction Bank.
But they are also hoping that by working with the largest credit issuers, such as Citigroup, Chase Card Services, MBNA America, Bank of America and Capital One Financial, that a change in industry practices will have a trickle down effect to smaller lenders.
Traders had shorted more than 103 million shares of Bank of America (nyse: BAC - news - people ) as of mid-December, indicating a frenzy of arbitrage activity prior to the closing of the bank's acquisition of MBNA (nyse: KRB - news - people ).
But they are also hoping that by working with the largest credit issuers, such as Citigroup, Chase Card Services, MBNA America, Bank of America and Capital One Financial (nyse: COF - news - people ), that a change in industry practices will have a trickle down effect to smaller lenders.
Traders had shorted more than 103 million shares of Bank of America as of mid-December, indicating a frenzy of arbitrage activity prior to the closing of the bank's acquisition of MBNA. Based on the number of shares shorted and Bank of America's average daily trading volume, it would take more than nine days to close out all those positions.
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