The Chase is
On Once Again
It's official:
Chase Manhattan Corp., is in the market for credit card
portfolios.
A year ago, the
fourth-largest bank card issuer declared an interest in becoming
number one among Visa and MasterCard lenders, a move that would
require it to more than double its managed loans.
But in the months
that followed, it made no visible move to achieve that goal. Instead,
its executives say, Chase worked on getting ready to bulk up by
hiring risk managers, improving customer service, and adding
predictive models and other technological pizzazz.
"The aspiration
[to be number one] remains," said Michael Urkowitz, executive
vice president and head of card member services. "Expectations are
there will be an even smaller number of remaining issuers in five
years and we intend to be one of the dominant ones. We are back in
the hunt for the next portfolio acquisitions."
Some longtime card
issuers have left the field, daunted by the enormous scale that the
largest issuers are accumulating. Chase's $34 billion of receivables
is about half that of Citigroup, Inc., or the First USA division of
Bank One Corp. MBNA Corp., at $67 billion, stands between Chase and
the two leaders.
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