hrough an agreement announced Jan. 5, 2005, Washington Mutual Inc. will move its principal card programs to the MasterCard International brand. The companies did not disclose the terms of the agreement.

Washington Mutual will begin issuing MasterCard-branded debit cards by the end of the year. Washington Mutual customers will be able to use their cards at signature (offline) and PIN debit (online) point-of-sale locations and at ATMs.

Washington Mutual has approximately 9 million signature debit cardholders and 1.5 million PIN-only cardholders. It currently operates nearly 1,900 banking offices and more than 3,200 ATMs in 14 states across the country.

In another announcement made on Jan. 6, Washington Mutual selected First Data Corp. to provide settlement and authorization processing for its debit card portfolio, extending the agreement Washington Mutual already has in place with First Data's STAR Network for processing transactions including PIN debit POS and ATM processing.