Bank Of America Buys Credit-Card Processor

Bank of America says it's acquiring National Processing Inc., a provider of credit-card processing for retailers, for $1.4 billion in cash. The acquisition will be merged into Bank of America Merchant Services and will be headquartered in Louisville, Ky., where National Processing is based.

The acquisition, disclosed Tuesday, will let Bank of America deliver a broader suite of payment solutions as transactions migrate from cash and checks to electronic payments, the company said in a statement.

Bank of America Merchant Services will be the second-largest merchant processor with nearly $250 billion in annual processing volume, trailing only Chase Merchant Services, a joint venture between J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and First Data Corp.