Citicorp Buys AT&T;’s Credit Card Business--and Customer Profiles

With its $3.5-billion purchase of AT&T;’s credit card business, Citicorp gets a bonus--a gold-mine list of 13.6 million AT&T; customers who could be ripe targets for banking and investment services.

AT&T;, meanwhile, gets a lot more than a bundle of cash as it wipes huge debts from its books. The 10-year agreement announced Thursday allows the telecommunications power to keep the AT&T; name on the Universal card and gives it a chance to market its long-distance and Internet services to account holders at Citibank, the banking unit of Citicorp and the world’s biggest credit card issuer.

“We are not just buying a portfolio,” said Alvaro deSouza, executive vice president for Citibank’s North America consumer business. “We are buying a business and also creating a new partnership.”

In addition to buying the right to collect $15 billion in charge accounts, Citibank gets access to AT&T; customers’ financial profiles.

AT&T; receives 40 million calls a year from customers or prospects asking for new telephone services.

“The potential . . . is just immense,” said A. Sami Siddiqui, Citibank’s general manager for credit cards in the United States.

With each phone call, “customers are giving you clues about their situation,” Siddiqui said. “If they’re asking for three phones, we know the size of the home, we know if they’re renting it or if they will need a mortgage.”

And, Siddiqui said, AT&T; has already done a credit check on these customers.

AT&T; introduced the Universal Card with fanfare in 1990 as a combined calling and charge card.

In New York Stock Exchange trading, Citicorp shares fell $2.38 to close at $129.13, while AT&T; shares rose $1.25 to $59.13.