ARLINGTON, Va. — NAFCU has stepped up its fight against the Army and Air Force Exchange Services issuing a general use credit card through an agent relationship with a bank.
AAFES, which a spokesman described as a "military command with a retail mission" announced it would start offering its customers the Military Star Rewards MasterCard in April 2008. The program would build on the Military Star program, an existing private label credit card program that the AAFES has long issued for use in its own stores.
NAFCU objected to the card on the grounds it violates a Department of Defense regulation against having more than one bank and one credit union on a military instillation.
Recommended For You
"The JP Morgan Chase MasterCard has already been advertised both at AAFES retail outlets and their Web site," NAFCU wrote in a May 7 letter to DoD Comptroller. "It is not an internal AAFES retail outlet credit program. It is a full fledged bank issued credit card product. The issuance of this MasterCard from AAFES and the processing of credit products adds a third financial institution to the base financial services in direct violation of [DoD regulations]," NAFCU added.
© Touchpoint Markets, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more inforrmation visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
