homas A. Wimsett has resigned as Chief Executive Officer and President of National Processing, Inc., which wholly owns the merchant credit card processor, National Processing Company (NPC).

The announcement was made by National Processing Inc.'s parent company, National City Corp.; there were no details given for the resignation. Jon L. Gorney will step in to replace Wimsett as the company's CEO. At the same time, Gorney also will take over as Chairman, replacing Paul G. Clark, and will continue to head National Processing, Inc.'s overall technology and operations functions. National Processing will name a new president in the near future.

Gorney has been with National City since 1973, serving in positions of increasing responsibility in information systems. He was elected Executive Vice President of National City in 1993 and has been responsible for all banking operations and technology functions. He has served on National Processing's Board of Directors since 2000.

"Jon understands the needs of National Processing, having served on its Board of Directors for the past two years, and will be able to build on the company's excellent results," Robert G. Siefers, National City Vice Chairman, said in a company statement.

"Jon has been instrumental in driving important technology initiatives at National City, and we are confident that National Processing will continue to thrive and grow under his leadership. We expect this change of leadership to be a seamless, transparent management transition that should not affect employees, customers or stockholders."

National Processing, headquartered in Louisville, Ky., operates two business segments, merchant card services and payment services. NPC supports more than 645,000 merchant locations and processes one-fifth of all Visa and MasterCard transactions in the U.S.

National City Corp. is publicly held, has financial holdings worth $99 billion and owns 85 percent of National Processing, Inc.