American Express Pitches Card To Banks

In a new attempt to boost its share of the cutthroat credit card business, American Express Co. is asking banks to offer its cards, even though they compete with the banks’ own Visa and MasterCard products.

The request, made Thursday by American Express Chairman Harvey Golub at a credit card conference in Atlanta, took public a campaign the company has been quietly waging for about a year.

The idea received mixed reviews from some large banks and drew fire from Visa.

Charles Walsh, head of Chase Manhattan Corp.’s Cardmembers Service Group, said the nation’s No. 1 bank was not interested.

But John B. McCoy, chairman and chief executive of Banc One, said his company would reserve judgment until reviewing the proposal by American Express.