Barclays To Buy U.S. Credit Card Firm Juniper Financial

LONDON, Aug 18 (AFP) - The British bank Barclays announced plans Wednesday to break into the US credit card market with a deal to buy US issuer Juniper Financial Corporation from Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce for 293 million dollars (238 million euros).
Barclays will finance the transaction from existing cash resources.
The acquisition, which is expected to be completed later this year, is conditional on clearance from appropriate US regulatory authorities.
Founded in 2000, Juniper is a full-service credit card issuer headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware. It has 700,000 accounts.
"This transaction would result in one of Europe's leading card and consumer finance businesses, Barclaycard, entering the US credit card market through the acquisition of one of North America's fastest growing issuers," Barclays said in a statement.