Bank Huntington is to add 250 new jobs in Ohio over the next four years as it rolls out a new credit card programme.

The new credit cards, developed in partnership with MasterCard, will be available to business customers in the first half of next year, with consumer cards following shortly thereafter.

A Huntington press release says that “the new jobs are the result of a successful public-private partnership that helped level the playing field for Ohio financial institutions to compete against institutions in other states”.

According to Ohio House of Representatives speaker William Batchelder, financial services is “a vitally important part of our state’s economy”, as it accounts for over 175,000 jobs in the state. Official statistics show total state employment of 5.4m.