I'm just fishing a bit on this, so maybe not right.... Years ago (maybe still) a company with receivables would "factor" them... that is sell the receivables for cash today at a discounted rate, naturally. Usually when the concept of "security" is considered, there would be more than one source of money (credit card receivables)... combined and sold as an income asset for cash at a discounted rate today. Then again, today's term for "factoring" might be "securitizing".
The debt is packaged up and sold just like mortgages, car loans, etc. I'm not how you would keep track of payments, etc. From the Wiki on MBNA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MBNA Employing more than 25,800 people around the world at the time of the merger with Bank of America, MBNA owned or managed more than $122.5 billion in outstanding consumer credit loans. Most of this loan debt was held in securitized portfolios that had been sold to other entities such as insurance companies and pension funds. MBNA virtually invented the process for securitizing credit card debt and this process contributed significantly to the fast growth of the company. It allowed for increasing the amount loaned without having to acquire matching assets to offset the loans.
the banks won't let go of the credit cards. they are making a fortune off them. they love them., they're not losing money. they encourage excessive charging, are you kidding?