Lloyds Banking Group has partnered with US private equity firm Cerberus to bid for Bank of America’s UK credit card business, which is valued at £7 billion. If the deal goes through, it would mark the Lloyd’s first acquisition in more than 7 years. The business that Bank of America is selling is referred to as MBNA, an American bank that it acquired in 2006. MBNA has five million credit card customers in the UK and about 11% of the UK market in terms of credit card balances. BofA had earlier sold some of its credit card operations in Ireland and Spain. However, five years ago, it abandoned plans to sell its entire European credit card business, including its UK operations, as takeover bids were less than expected.
