Great Western to Sell Credit Card Operation to Ford Unit : Thrifts: Its 178,000 Visa accounts are too few to produce enough profit, the company says. The deal will result in 80 layoffs.

Great Western Bank said Monday that it will sell its credit card operation to a unit of Ford Motor Co., a deal that will result in the layoff of 80 Great Western employees at the company’s headquarters in Chatsworth.

Great Western said it is selling the operation because it was not large enough to be sufficiently profitable. The thrift is selling 178,000 Visa accounts with a combined outstanding balance of $222 million--an average of about $1,247 per account.

Terms of the sale were not disclosed, but Great Western said it expects to report a profit of $43 million when the deal closes this month. The buyer is Associates Corp. of North America, part of Ford’s financial services group.

Associates National Bank in Delaware will become the agent issuing cards to Great Western customers, but the Great Western logo will remain on the cards.

Great Western is selling the credit card operation to “reduce expenses, streamline our operations and concentrate our energies on growing businesses that make most sense for us to grow,” according to company spokesman Ian Campbell.

Great Western is burdened by high costs and too many problem loans. Last month, the financial institution announced that it intended to dramatically reduce its administrative costs, a process that could cost as many as 1,800 jobs.

The sale of credit card operations is not related to the other administrative cost cutting, Campbell said.

“It shows Great Western’s narrowing of focus, that to be a credit card player you have to be a large player because the spreads are so narrow,” said Campbell Chaney, a thrift analyst with Dakin Securities in San Francisco. “The competition is too fierce unless you are a big issuer.”

Chaney said he expects Great Western to sell off other peripheral businesses in the months ahead.

The 80 employees will be laid off between now and February. Another 40 employees in the credit card operation will be transferred to other Great Western positions.

Irving, Tex.-based Associates Corp. of North America is one of the top 15 credit card issuers in the country, according to its spokesman, Fred Stern.