<p>Bank of America Corp.'s plans to issue American Express branded credit cards should bolster the bank's efforts to attract new customers while retaining more affluent ones, chief executive Ken Lewis said Wednesday.</p><p>"It's a way to bring in new customers and it's a product we can offer our existing customers," he said after speaking at the Charlotte Chamber's Annual Economic Outlook Conference. "We see this mainly as a product for our private and premier bank segments."</p><p>Private bank and premier bank customers are some of the Charlotte bank's wealthiest clients. Earlier this month, the bank cut fees for online stock trades from nearly $20 to as little as $5 per transaction for those customers.</p><p>Other Bank of America customers also will get a discount for their online stock trades, but not as steep.</p><p>Bank of America, which will become the nation's largest credit card issuer when it closes on its $35 billion acquisition of MBNA Corp. on Jan. 1, said it will market the American Express branded cards online and through its 5,800 branches beginning next year.</p><p>Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Under the agreement, Bank of America will own the customer loans and American Express will process the transactions.</p><p>Separately, American Express confirmed Wednesday it will dismiss Bank of America from its antitrust litigation against Visa, MasterCard and a number of U.S. banks.</p><p>Both Bank of America and American Express also said an existing card-issuing partnership between MBNA and American Express will continue. In January 2004, Wilmington, Del.-based MBNA became the first major U.S. financial institution to sign a network partnership with American Express.</p><p>Meanwhile, Columbus, Ga.-based Total System Services Inc. said Wednesday it expects to lose about 15 percent of its annual revenue when Bank of America takes its credit-card services in house next October. In 2005, Total System's contracts with Bank of America and MBNA were expected to generate $376.9 million, or 23.5 percent of yearly revenue. Overall 2005 revenue is projected to reach $1.6 billion.</p><p>Total System forecasts losing $239 million from Bank of America's move.</p><p>Bank of America will pay a termination fee to switch over its business, Total System said.</p><p>Bank of America shares closed Wednesday at $46.64, down 5 cents, on the New York Stock Exchange.</p><p>Shares of Total System closed at $18.91, down $3.05, or nearly 14 percent, on the NYSE.</p><p>___</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>HASH(0x1cdccb0)</p>
