Card-Processing Network: Will It or Won't It? BofA Keeps Card Close to Vest.: Did CEO Ken Lewis prematurely show his hand?(statistics of credit cards)

Though Bank of America has been busy trying to downplay CEO Ken Lewis's musings about the bank's interest in starting a card network and a fifth new card brand, it hasn't stopped analysts from imagining what the industry would be like with a new bulked-up player.

The nation's second-largest bank by market value after Citigroup, BofA boasts more than 41.9 million credit-card accounts, or nearly one in five of the 220.2 million credit cards issued by the nation's top 50 bank issuers, according to the Nilson Report. Lewis had said in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal that "it gets into your consciousness" to own a network rather than to rent someone else's. ...Why not become the old BankAmericard again?"

But Terry Francisco, a BofA spokesman, says the comments were "taken out of context" during an investor call and were only a response to a reporter's question about Morgan Stanley analyst Betsy Graseck's report that the bank could save more than $70 million annually by building its own network. "We don't have any firm plans to pursue it, so it's not something that we can really expand upon," he says. "We continually consider new and innovative business strategies. However, we cannot speculate on any future actions that we may or may not take." In other words, BofA is keeping its options open. But did Lewis unintentionally spill the beans?

Speculation has been rampant since June 30, 2005, when BofA announced plans to acquire MBNA, the nation's third-largest credit-card issuer, for a $35 billion cash-and-stock deal. At the time, BofA officials heralded the buy as a way to help cross-sell other bank products and to save up to $850 million in processing costs over two years. "[Lewis's current comment] may have just been a trial balloon at this point, since it doesn't seem like a complete strategy," acknowledges Aaron McPherson, ...