By Ian Walker

LONDON-- Lloyds Banking Group PLC said Tuesday it is buying the credit-card business of Bank of America Corp., MBNA Ltd., for GBP1.9 billion ($2.35 billion), as part of its plan to grow its consumer-finance business.

Bank of America decided to sell the unit, which has about five million customers and a loan book of around GBP7 billion, in 2011 as it ditched several international credit-card businesses to bolster its balance sheet, but the sale was axed a year later. It relaunched the sale earlier this year.

Lloyds, which is 6.93% owned by the U.K. government, has been trying to expand its credit-card business and executives have said in the past that it would look at acquisitions of specific loan portfolios.

Lloyds said it expects the acquisition to increase group revenue by GBP650 million a year and enhance its net interest margin by 0.1 percentage point.

The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of the first half of 2017, subject to competition and regulatory approval, the bank said.

Write to Ian Walker at ian.walker@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 20, 2016 02:56 ET (07:56 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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