According to a recent press report Standard Chartered Bank is planning an aggressive expansion of credit-card customers over the next year.
Mr. Shymal Saxena, General Manager-Retail Banking Products, India and South Asia said that the bank has started online approval of credit cards where the customers can get an ‘in-principle’ approval within 30 seconds.
He said that the bank currently has a credit-card base of 1.1 million. Card spends are seeing an increase of 35-40 per cent on a month-on-month basis. He also said that the banks total retail book, as on June 2011 was at $5 billion, of which, mortgages accounted credit-cardfor $2 billion, SME loans $2 billion and ‘others’ the remaining
Mr. Shymal said that the bank has planned to offer online approval at branches. He said customers can complete the documentation at the branch immediately after the card is approved, and the card will be dispatched within 48 hours. He added saying that the bank may also offer online approval of personal loans, following the online credit cards approvals.
Reports said that the bank is also planning to tie up with large distribution chains with 2,000-3,000 outlets for to offer the online approval facility.