News About SBI Credit Cards

• SBI Card hopes to top market share in 3 years

  The country’s second largest credit card issuer - SBI Card – is vying to dethrone the topper HDFC Bank in the card-space within the coming 2-3 years by aggressively focusing on the rich young customer segment.

  SBI CARD is a joint venture between State Bank of India and the US-based GE Capital - which recently made public its plans to exit the business. Following this exit, the SBI intends to push up its stake to 74%. Meanwhile,GE is on the lookout for buyers to sell off its balance of 26%.

  The Managing Director and CEO of SBI Card, Mr Vijay Jasuja explained that  in recent times, they had observed 50 percent of their premium customers to be in the age group between 25 and 35. These were urban young affluent customers with different lifestyles, and are more and increasingly aspirational spending more on travel, vacations, leisure, entertainment and hang-outs. They constitute over 50 percent to the premium segment.

  As of April end, the HDFC Bank has 87 lakh credit cards - the single-largest number in the industry, followed by the SBI at 46.8 lakh. The ICICI Bank comes third at 42.8 lakh cards.

  Mr. Jasuja further stated that with its 15 percent market share, the SBI Card had risen to the second spot, overtaking the ICICI Bank in the number of cards in circulation, while in the category of average spending, the SBI card had jumped up to the second spot from the fifth spot a year back.

  

  20th June 2017

• State Bank of India aims to enhance credit lines for peasants

  In a small village in the northern state of Haryana, called Asawta, more than 100 farmers showed up to hear what a few SBI officials had to say about different agricultural credit schemes.

  The meeting was arranged by SBI's agricultural development branch in the Palwal district of Haryana that is situated around 65 kms south of New Delhi. This district is a part of the SBI's initiative to get in touch with the agricultural community before the rice-sowing season that starts from July to offer the farmers with fresh loans and renew the old ones. Such meetings are being organized by around 15,500 SBI branches all across the country to lend the farmers with some financial support. Among the schemes listed is a kisan credit card plan that can be utilized to meet cultivation-related expenses. Also, a loan facility that can be availed using gold ornaments with a low interest rate of 4% is also being made available to the farmers.

  These meetings that are being arranged across the country by SBI coincided with the protests being held by the farmers in some parts of the country asking to forgive debts and higher price of their produce.

  

  15th June 2017

• State Bank of India charges fee for cheque payments against credit dues

  State Bank of India will charge a fee for paying the credit card bills using cheques. Since April 1, 2017, this rule has come in effect, as per the State Bank of India website. SBI stated that any payment below Rs.2,000 via cheques will add a fee of Rs.100. If the cheque payment is more than Rs.2,000 then no add-on fee will be charged by the card company.

  Vijay Jasuja, CEO of SBI Card, mentioned that the company has noticed that most payments occur via non-cheque modes. This accounts to more than 90% of the total number of payments. It has also been observed that there is a trend of the disputes related to payments that arise in small cheque payments, in turn causing problems for the customer too.

  Several digital modes for making the payments are already provided by SBI. This has been done in line with the Government’s idea of implementing digital payment process. The step taken by State Bank of India is surely provide a boost to the digital payment system. The Unnati card has been introduced by State Bank of India which will encourage the users to engage in cashless transactions.

  

  25th April 2017

• Carlyle to pick up the stake of GE Capital in State Bank of India cards

  Carlyle Group is a private equity firm and it is all set to acquire the stake of GE Capital in State Bank of India cards. The size of this particular deal is nearly Rs.2,000 crores which is roughly equivalent to $305 million. The entity will be valued at $1.16 billion which is equivalent to Rs.7,600 crores.

  The shareholding of SBI in credit card business will increase up to 74% by the transaction. Stakes, however, will be held by Carlyle.

  

  31st March 2017

• SBI to increase stake in two credit card ventures

  The country’s biggest lender, the State Bank of India (SBI) is looking to increase its stake in two credit card joint ventures with the American Conglomerate General Electric, this move is in light of the recent demonization which has caused customers to make most of their transactions online or via card. SBI is looking to increase its stake in General Electric Capital Business Process Management Services from 40% to 51% and from 60% to 74% in SBI Cards and Payments, which markets and distributes credit cards. This move dovetails with General Electric’s global strategy to exit the financial services market, as it is a non-core business. Barclays will be advising SBI during the transaction and Morgan Stanley will be advising General Electric.

  

  9th February 2017

• State Bank of India likely to raise its stake in credit card joint venture

  According to reports in the media, State Bank of India is likely to raise its stake in its credit card venture called the State Bank of India Cards and Payments Services Limited (SBICPSL). Besides this, the company is also expected to find a new strategic partner to replace the spot currently held by GE Capital, which is expected to happen during the current quarter. That’s not all, SBI is also looking to replace GE Capital in its Capital Business Process Management Services unit which at present takes care of processing and technological needs of the SBI card. Going by the data available, SBI holds 60% stake in SBICPSL and about 40% in GECBPMSL, while the rest of the 40% and 60% in either of these ventures being held by GE Capital. Speaking about the issue Managing Director of SBI Dinesh Khara has suggested that a new partner will be announced before the end of March this year. However, he failed to mention the approach the company is taking to salvage this issue and who the partners are going to be.

  

  1st February2017

• SBI Launches Credit Card in Association with Fashion Store Central

  SBI has tied up with leading retailer Central to launch a co-branded credit card. A statement released by the Future Group that owns the Central brand revealed that the aim was to make it easier for consumers to make purchases following the demonetisation policy.

  Called the Central SBI SELECT and SELECT+, the credit cards offer an accelerated rewards points system, with cardholders earning 20 rewards points for Rs.100 spent in Central stores across the country.

  In addition to shopping, cardholders will also benefit from dining and entertainment spends, earning 10 rewards points for Rs.100 spent.

  With the number of cashless transactions on the rise following demonetisation, the bank and retailer hope to capitalise on the cashless trend.

  This is the second tie up between the two partners, who had earlier released an SBI StyleUp credit card in partnership with Big Bazaar.

  

  25th January 2017

• SBI Offers Credit Cards Against Fixed Deposits

  The State Bank of India (SBI) is looking to issue credit cards to individuals with a fixed deposit of Rs.25,000 or more with any bank. The card will be free of charge and will not require a proof of income or credit history. SBI is also planning on issuing credit cards to students of the top 100 educational institutions in the country without requiring any proof of income. SBI has become the second largest issuer of cards in the country, overtaking ICICI bank. SBI also plans to add 5 lakh new card machines. The credit card against fixed deposits will be launched in January, 2017 and the student credit card has been launched in December, 2016. The bank will also launch an app to facilitate offline payments via QR code. The app will be useful in small cities where most merchants do not have PoS (Swipe) machines to facilitate payments.

  

  21st December 2016

• SBI launches mobile payment service in association with Visa

  India’s leading bank SBI has launched a mobile based payment service in Bengaluru for its internet banking and debit card customers on May 6. With backing from global electronic payment giant Visa, the mVisa service lets customers pay for goods and services by simply scanning the QR code of the merchant without intervention of credentials originating from debit-credit cards.

  SBI customers can start using this facility on their smartphones by installing the required app available for download on Google Play Store. The app provides cashless payment solutions under one roof by generating dynamic or static QR codes to process and authorize the transaction. SBI has plans to extend this service to other parts of the country depending on its functionality and success in the garden city.

  At present, the bank has a little over 26 million customers who use internet banking, out of which around 6 million use the Anywhere app under which this feature is available.

  

  17th May 2016

• State Bank of India will soon place credit cards in a user’s mobile phone.

  State Bank of India would be soon facilitating credit card payments via mobile phones as part of mobile wallet services. A particular SBI customer’s credit cards will be made available in the mobile phone. This will enable the user to make payments through HCE - Host Card Emulation Technology, without the requirement of swiping or reading. A French company, Worldline e-Payment Services will be installing HCE across India, which would allow PoS devices to read virtual credit cards or debits card available on the phones. Customers using their credit cards to purchase via their mobile phones do not have to be worried about a spending limit at PoS terminals, as there are no restrictions imposed on this.

  

  21st March 2016

• SBI to Launch Mobile Wallet for Feature Phones

  India’s largest lender, State Bank of India, is planning to soon launch a mobile wallet for feature phones. The mobile wallet application will be called Batua and will be rolled out before mid-2016. This application can be used to make utility payments, purchase air tickets, transfer funds and for other financial activities. SBI had also previously launched Buddy which is also available to non-bank customers which allows them to add money via debit cards, OMPS and net banking. Earlier this year, SBI had also launched contactless NFC based credit cards and debit cards. The bank is also looking forward to converting 1 lakh Point of Sale (POS) terminals across eight cities. The bank will also be converting over all existing cards to contactless cards.

  

  08th December 2015