Visa International Inc

America Online signed a five-year agreement worth as much as $500 million to market credit cards via the Internet with Bank One Corp.'s First USA unit, the nation's largest provider of MasterCard and Visa cards. The two companies established a co-branded Visa card in 1996, and the current agreement extends that connection.

America Online signed a five-year agreement worth as much as $500 million to market credit cards via the Internet with Bank One Corp.'s First USA unit, the nation's largest provider of MasterCard and Visa cards. The two companies established a co-branded Visa card in 1996, and the current agreement extends that connection.

* Visa International Inc. said it is cutting costs by eliminating 160 jobs in its information technology and data processing division, 8% of the unit's total. The cuts are taking place in the San Francisco-based division known as Inovant, which provides products and services to Visa subsidiaries worldwide.

* The U.S. asked for as much as $100 million from a $3-billion debit card antitrust settlement between U.S. retailers and Visa International Inc. and MasterCard International Inc. * London Fog Group, the Seattle maker of raincoats, filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Court protection for the second time in seven years after failing to obtain financing to fund its operations.

The Justice Department is investigating interchange fees that MasterCard Inc., Visa International Inc. and their member banks charge retailers to process transactions, the department's chief antitrust enforcer told Congress. Thomas O.

Visa International Inc. said the dollar amount of transactions on its cards rose 22% in the 12 months through September, as more people started using the cards and more businesses began accepting them. Visa, a payment system owned by a consortium of banks, saw its biggest gains in Latin America, where its transaction volume more than doubled to $68 billion in the 12-month period, a spokesman said.

Advanta Corp. will probably stop marketing a credit card that gives customers rewards in an American Express Co. program if it can settle pending lawsuits involving Visa International Inc. and MasterCard International Inc., people involved in the situation said. The companies are discussing a settlement, and one could be reached soon. A spokesman for Visa declined to comment.

MasterCard International Inc. and Visa International Inc. lost a bid to dismiss a lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to impose hidden fees of as much as $4 billion on cardholders who make purchases overseas. U.S. District Judge William Pauley in New York last week refused to dismiss several antitrust claims in the case. In April, a California judge said the companies must provide refunds for the fees on overseas purchases, a ruling that could cost them $800 million. A lawyer for Purchase, N.Y.

Visa International Inc. and MasterCard International Inc. can place notices in newspapers and monthly credit card bills telling customers how to claim $800 million in refunds, a California judge said. Judge Ronald Sabraw's tentative ruling in Oakland was a partial victory for Visa and MasterCard, the two largest credit card companies, in a case over refunds for foreign exchange fees collected since 1996.

Visa International Lets EU Banks Set AmEx Policy: Visa International Inc. opened the way for its European member banks to break with the Visa USA policy on competition and issue credit cards from American Express Co. and Dean Witter, Discover & Co. The Visa International board, meeting in Montreal this week, said it will let each of its six regional boards decide whether to pursue the ban on member banks issuing American Express or Discover cards. In the U.S.