Access was a credit card brand originally introduced in the United Kingdom in 1972 by a consortium of National Westminster Bank, Midland Bank (now HSBC), Lloyds Bank (now Lloyds TSB), and The Royal Bank of Scotland, as a rival to the established Barclaycard (VISA). It was also issued in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland by Ulster Bank, a subsidiary of NatWest, Northern Bank, then a subsidiary of Midland; and Bank of Ireland, which was unconnected to the founder banks.

The card scheme was run from Southend-on-Sea in Essex, England, by the Joint Credit Card Company Limited. It participated in the Eurocard/MasterCard systems.Europay International SA has since been taken over by MasterCard International itself.

Info gleaned from Wikipedia