Chase, First Data Form Payment Venture

Chase Manhattan Bank and First Data Corp. agreed to form a joint venture that will process $90 billion a year of credit and debit card payments to merchants, the largest such program in the U.S. Financial details of the joint venture weren’t available. The program is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 1997. For First Data, the Chase agreement is the latest of a series of alliances with banks nationwide. Hackensack, N.J.-based First Data has been processing most of Chase’s credit card business since the late 1980s. The joint venture initially will handle nearly $90 billion in annual credit, debit and card sales volume from 30,000 merchant accounts.