Access was a credit card brand originally introduced in the United Kingdom in 1972 by a consortium of National Westminster Bank, Midland Bank (nowHSBC), Lloyds Bank (now Lloyds TSB Halifax Bank of Scotland) and Williams & Glyn’s Bank (now the Royal Bank of Scotland), as a rival to the established Barclaycard (Visa). It was also issued in 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 otherwise 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 theEurocard/MasterCard systems. Europay International SA has since been taken over by MasterCard International.

Info gleaned from Wikipedia