First Data Retail Services and Banc One Private Label Credit Services announced Friday an agreement whereby Banc One will purchase certain retail credit card portfolios in which First Data owns the receivables. The portfolios to be sold include about one million retail establishment accounts and represents the only credit card receivables owned by FDRS. Banc One currently has six million private label accounts with $2 billion in receivables. First Data will continue to provide processing and customer services on an interim basis.

First Data Retail Services, a division of First Data Corporation (NYSE: FDC)/Card Services Group, and Banc One Private Label Credit Services announced today that they have signed an agreement whereby Banc One will purchase certain retail credit card portfolios in which First Data owns the consumer receivables. Under the agreement, First Data will continue to provide processing and customer services for the sold portfolios on an interim basis. Other terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

First Data Corporation subsidiaries currently process approximately 35 million private label retail and oil credit card accounts. The portfolios to be sold include about one million retail establishment accounts, which represent the only credit card receivables owned by First Data Retail Services.

Banc One Private Label Credit Services, a subsidiary of BANC ONE CORPORATION (NYSE: ONE), is a leading provider of retail credit services with over 6 million cardholder accounts for major clients in six industry segments.

"This is an important step in our strategy to focus on processing and information services in the private label card market," said Henry T. DeNero, executive vice president, First Data Corporation. "We decided about a year ago that receivables ownership was not an essential part of our retail strategy. Retailers are increasingly recognizing the value of state-of-the- art card processing and related data base marketing support. Processing is our core business and our continued work with First Data InfoSource, along with our recent acquisition of Donnelley Marketing, will expand our ability to provide target marketing services."

"For Banc One, this purchase represents a significant extension of a strategically important business," said Tom Winning, president, Banc One Private Label Credit Services. "In addition to adding to our receivables of approximately $2 billion, this acquisition expands our existing presence in the automotive category and provides us with a new, fast-growth opportunity in the soft goods segment. We are confident that the partnership strategy we have pursued with our existing clients will provide excellent opportunities for First Data's clients as well."

BANC ONE CORPORATION had assets of $97.1 billion and common equity of $8.3 billion at June 30, 1996. BANC ONE now operates 1,503 banking offices in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin. BANC ONE also owns several additional corporations that engage in data processing, venture capital, investment and merchant banking, trust, brokerage, credit card and merchant processing, investment management, equipment leasing, mortgage banking, consumer finance and insurance.

Information about BANC ONE's second quarter 1996 financial results and its products and services can be accessed on the Internet at: http://www.bankone.com and through InvestQuest(TM) World Wide Web: http://www.investquest.com Fax-on-demand: 614-844-3860.

First Data Corporation, which reported more than $4.1 billion in revenues in 1995, provides information processing services to financial institutions, merchants, insurance companies, health care providers, government agencies, public utilities and consumers throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and through its agent network to more than 120 countries around the world.