Originally Posted by Happy

Yup. Read about this in various places outside FT.
Also read about Barclays reps do the same thing on recon calls - a person reported the Barclays rep picked 2 random cards, one AMEX one Chase. and asked why he opened those 2 cards this year. To that the person said they were for different hotel / airline program and the Barclays rep was satisfied by the explanation and then approved the person's application.

Hence I believe those who think 2/3/4 only applied to BofA own cards because they have not read enough DPs on various site, are kidding themselves that BofA rule dont count other banks' cards. The trend is, fairly obvious that banks are moving towards the Chase model. Among the main players only AMEX does not seem too care about how many cards people have gotten from other banks. Smaller players such as Barclays and US Bank have long been sensitive on how many new cards people have opened. BofA seems to be joining the rank as you have observed.