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issuing bank through the Visa interchange; the amount paid by the
issuing bank to the merchant bank was the amount of the sales
draft less an interchange fee. The issuing bank charged the
cardholder the full amount of the sales draft.
In 1980 and 1981, Barnett Credit Services, Inc. (BCS), a
nonbank subsidiary of Barnett Banks of Florida, Inc., performed
various services for the subsidiary banks, and hence for the
cardholders and merchants, with respect to Visa cards: card
issuance, credit authorization, accounting, data processing,
billing services, investigation of problem charges resulting from
lost or stolen cards, and planning and marketing support
functions. None of these functions was performed by the
subsidiary banks themselves.4 BCS offered customer assistance 24
hours a day. BCS was a nonprofit center with respect to the
subsidiary banks, passing on the costs incurred. The subsidiary
banks paid BCS on a monthly basis according to a fixed schedule
4 BCS, in turn, contracted with National Data Corporation
(NDC) to provide the credit authorization services to the banks'
merchant clients. BCS charged the banks for this service at
NDC's rates.
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Last modified: May 25, 2011