One UK personal and business bank account provider recently acquired MBNA Europe Bank Limited’s credit card portfolio for small businesses.
Banking giant Barclays has taken control of the business, which is comprised of around £130 million in outstanding balances across approximately 60,000 accounts. The new accounts are to be integrated into the banking group’s Barclaycard division.
Valerie Soranno Keating, chief executive of Barclaycard, stated that she was delighted to welcome so many new customers to the fold. The newcomers will be sure to reap the benefits of the deep understanding Barclaycard has of commercial payments, which has grown significantly over the past 34 years, she added.
The chief executive also stated that in combination with the recent announcement of Barclaycard’s intentions to purchase the credit card assets of Egg, The MBNA deal highlights how diversified the group’s payments business has grown recently. She additionally said that outstanding balances are priced at a small discount, as well.
Barclays, which is one of the largest High Street banking groups in the UK, entered into an agreement in regards to the acquisition of the entirety of Egg’s UK credit card accounts this past March. The value of the business is around £2.3 billion in gross receivable income across approximately 1.15 million credit card accounts.
While Barclays acquired Egg’s credit card operation in its entirety, the banking group recently also made the decision to preserve the brand and not integrate it completely into its Barclaycard framework. US-based bank Citigroup retained ownership of Egg’s remaining retail banking divisions.
After the acquisition announcement many Egg employees had expressed concerns regarding the stability of their positions. Now after more than a month since the announced transfer Barclays has still not been forthcoming with details of any possible job losses, prompting MPs to question the banking giant in the hopes of allaying the fears of their constituencies.