What are the largest card issuers?

[Red1Blue]

I am curious. How does the card issuers rank by the number of cards they have issued? Who is the largest card issuer and how others rank in terms of number cards issued by bank? Any ideas?

[unknown_entity]

Since the merger with MBNA, Bank of America is the number one issuer of cards in the U.S.

[unknown_entity]

B of A has over 40 million active credit card accounts. Third largest bank, number one in credit cards. 

[Anonymous]

2004 numbers-

Already pointed out #3 and #4 combined to be #1

Rank	Bank Name	Outstandings ($ millions)	Number of Active Accounts (in thousands)
1	JP Morgan Chase	$134,700	42,966
2	Citigroup	115,950	47,880
3	MBNA America	82,118	21,199
4	Bank of America	61,093	18,773
5	Capital One	53,024	24,429
6	HSBC Bank	19,670	13,870
7	Providian	18,536	8,726
8	Wells Fargo	13,455	2,789
9	U.S. Bancorp	10,578	4,056
10	USAA Federal Savings	7,104	1,956
	Total	$516,228	186,644
Source: American Banker

Message Edited by Timothy on 05-20-2008 09:20 PM

[Anonymous]

interesting article googling for the answer-

http://www.fdic.gov/bank/analytical/banking/2005nov/article2.html