The card company American Express has announced that they are to accept a payment of about $1.8bn (£0.9bn) from Mastercard after it sued the credit card giant and some large US banks.

Back in 2004 American Express filed a law suit against Master card because they believed that Mastercard, Visa and their member banks had illegally blocked it from the US bank-issued card business.

American Express had accused Mastercard of conspiring to prevent some banks from issuing its credit cards. Mastercard finally agreed to make 12 quarterly payments of $150m to American Express.

Last year, American Express reached a settlement with Visa in a similar suit.

"We are pleased to have reached a settlement that will enable us to keep our strong balance sheet intact," said Mastercard boss Robert Selander. He also said the deal removed "the uncertainty, time commitment and expense of a prolonged court case".

Mastercard had remained the sole defendant in the lawsuit. The American Express credit card company had claimed that a group of credit card companies had carried out "anti-competitive practices" that had prevented 20,000 US banks from using their Amex credit card products. It had also accused the card companies as functioning "as a cartel".