ICICI Bank to add Signature mark on credit card market

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 2007 12:12:14 AM]

BANGALORE: In A bid to woo the creme-de-la-creme of the country, ICICI Bank plans to roll out the Signature brand from the VISA stable. Speaking to ET, ICICI Bank cards product group head Sachin Khandelwal said: ”We are working out the contours of the product and it should hopefully roll out in a couple of weeks. The offering will be unique and special in its class.” With exclusivity becoming a key factor, Signature cards will be marketed strictly by invitation. Interestingly, the Indian credit card market is heavily metal dependent with silver and gold now giving way to platinum and titanium credit cards. ICICI Bank is the top issuer of plastics in the country. It has close to a third of the credit card market in India with nearly 7.5 million cards in circulation. India has a total of 21-22 million credit cards. In the interim, ICICI Bank is looking at expanding its foot-print in the tier-II and III cities. “We are pushing into these markets and believe that opportunities lie in both card issuance and charge-slip acquisition. We can structure the credit limits based on an individual’s salary and depending on where he lives. With rising income levels in tier-II and tier-III cities, the credit limits can be tailor-made to serve the needs of the HNIs,” he said. The bank is also in talks with various retailers, notably in tier-II and III cities, to be enrolled into i-mint — the country-wide rewards programme which operates with agencies like Airtel and HPCL Source