BMO announced today that they will be buying t he Diners Club North America Franchise from Citigroup. It is a big move that will see BMO double its corporate credit card business and hopefully they will allow the personal card to be available once again to the Canadian and US public as their personal card, at least in Canada, is one of the best cards available (it ranked #1 in the Hybird Card category in our 2009 rankings of Canadian travel credit cards). Perhaps BMO can take this brand even farther then Citi did and make the card ‘prestigious’ once again like it used to be in the 70’s and 80’s.
I would have to assume though by the wording ‘franchise’ that the Discover Group, issuer of the Discover Card is still the owner of the Diners Club brand and BMO will simply be licensing it just like Citigroup did.
Press release from Canadian Press
(Thanks to long time Rewards Canada reader Andrew S for the lead on this one!)