Bank of America Corp. has hired Electronic Data Systems Corp. to run the voice and data networks for its MBNA Corp.
The Plano, Tex., outsourcing provider has provided similar services to B of A since 2002.
On Monday, EDS announced it had signed a $700 million, six-year deal to integrate MBNA's communications networks with those of B of A, which purchased the credit card company in January.
This is not the first time EDS has benefited from the Charlotte company's deals. B of A signed its original contract with EDS - a $4.5 billion, 10-year deal that included only telecommunications systems - in 2002.
Tom Warsop, the vice president for the U.S. financial services industry at EDS, said the new contract is "quite similar, actually, to a deal that we announced in 2004, which happened when the bank bought FleetBoston."
EDS completed the integration of FleetBoston Financial Corp.'s data network into B of A's this year. Mr. Warsop said he does not know when the MBNA integration would be complete, except that it will not happen this year.
The Fleet outsourcing work, valued at $1.1 billion, made EDS' Bank of America contract the most expensive bank outsourcing contract, topping a $5 billion contract between International Business Machines Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. that was announced in late 2002 and covered the banking company's core processing.
The New York banking company acquired Bank One Corp. in July 2004, and the Chicago company's chief executive James Dimon, who is well known for his aversion to technology outsourcing, became the president of JPMorgan Chase.
Two months after that deal closed, JPMorgan Chase announced that it would exit its outsourcing agreement with IBM.
Mr. Warsop said that B of A has given EDS no sign that it is interested in outsourcing its core banking systems, but "we certainly hope that" the MBNA contract could open "open a new opportunity for us to add some new value to the bank."
EDS will be managing communications for 200,000 B of A employees, including MBNA ones, at 5,800 retail locations and 50 contact centers, as well as 16,700 automated teller machines, in 30 states. The vendor will use equipment from Cisco Systems Inc. of San Jose to integrate the networks.
B of A's network currently covers about 180,000 employees at 5,700 retail locations, as well as 16,500 ATMs, in 29 states.
