In a long-planned move, Charlie Cawley has stepped down as chief executive officer of MBNA America, the second-largest credit card lender that he helped launch 20 years ago.

The company announced Tuesday that Cawley, 62, will remain president of MBNA Corp., the parent company, but will turn over day-to-day operations of the banking business to Bruce Hammonds, 54, and John Cochran III, 50.

Hammonds was named chief executive officer, and Cochran chief operating officer of MBNA America, the division that operates nine offices in Maine, employing 4,500.

Al Lerner, 69, who founded the company with Cawley in the early 1980s from a cast-off credit card division of Maryland Bank, will remain chairman of MBNA Corp. Lerner also is an owner of the Cleveland Browns football team.

Cawley and Lerner built the business – which has been described as a bank without lobbies, lending money through its credit cards – into a booming success. MBNA earned $1.7 billion in 2001, $1.3 billion in 2000, and just more than $1 billion in 1999.

In 1991, when its stock was first offered publicly, MBNA had $7 billion in managed loans; it now has almost $100 billion in loans.

“It’s something that’s been in the works for a long time,” said David Spartin, MBNA vice chairman and corporate spokesman. “It’s just formalizing what’s been in place for several years.”

Cawley and Lerner will now focus on business strategy and long-range planning, Spartin said, such as deciding where the company should expand. Earlier this year, MBNA announced it would open offices in Spain. It operates in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland.

MBNA employs 28,000 people, operating in the United States through its headquarters in Wilmington, Del., as well as in Atlanta and Cleveland and in cities in Maryland, New Jersey, Texas and California.

Cawley, who was raised in New Jersey, has family ties to Maine: his grandfather operated a clothing plant in Belfast. He lives part of the year in a waterfront estate in Camden.

Though he shuns the spotlight, Cawley nonetheless is well known in the midcoast area. It was his decision to open offices in Maine, as MBNA created first 75 jobs in Camden in 1993, then expanded throughout the state.

The company and Cawley have become major philanthropists in Maine, giving large grants to museums, schools and environmental causes. MBNA Foundation, which has an office in Maine, provides college scholarships to Maine students each year.

In a statement, Cawley and Lerner praised Hammonds and Cochran, saying they “fully reflect the company’s precepts – they consistently do what is right for the people of MBNA, for our customers, for our shareholders, and for the community.”

Both Hammonds and Cochran have been “directly involved in every decision and action that has produced this company’s success over the last 20 years,” the statement continued. “All of us are fortunate to have them to lead us in the years ahead.”

MBNA has offices Belfast, Camden, Rockland, Fort Kent, Presque Isle, Farmington, Orono, Brunswick and Portland.