MBNA Corporation was a bank holding company and parent company of wholly owned subsidiary MBNA America Bank, N.A., headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, prior to being acquired by Bank of America in 2006. It was the world's largest independent credit card issuer, specializing in affinity cards. MBNA was founded in 1982 as Maryland Bank, N.A., a subsidiary of Maryland National Bank. The name MBNA is an initialism that was derived as an abbreviation or acronym of Maryland Bank, National Association. In 1989, Maryland Bank was renamed MBNA America Bank. MBNA Corp. spun off from Maryland... National and became an independent company in 1991. Maryland National was acquired by NationsBank in 1993. On June 30, 2005, MBNA announced that it was being acquired by Bank of America for stock and cash totalling more than $35 billion, reuniting MBNA with Maryland National in a roundabout way, as NationsBank was purchased by Bank of America in 1998. The deal was closed on January 1, 2006. The acquisition resulted in MBNA being renamed to Bank of America Card Services while still based in Delaware.
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