NOTE: SBINEWS DOES NOT PERMIT CIRCULATION OF ATTACHMENTS. ATTACHMENTS, IF ANY, CIRCULATED WILL BE ONLY BECAUSE OF VIRUSES. PLEASE,THEREFORE, IGNORE ATTACHMENTS IF ANY IN SBINEWS MESSAGES ************************************************************************ SBI cards set for Sri Lanka debut (Business Standard) Our Banking Bureau in Mumbai Published : January 28, 2004 The State Bank of India (SBI)-GE Capital joint venture is set to launch SBI Cards in Sri Lanka. SBI will be the first Indian bank to sell its credit cards overseas. At present, HSBC and Standard Chartered are present in the five-lakh credit card market in Sri Lanka. According to sources, SBI has studied the market and is in the process of getting regulatory approvals for launching the product. SBI has a card base of around 1.4 million in India. "Even though the Sri Lankan market is much smaller than India, the potential is immense as the number of cards in active use on a regular basis in Sri Lanka as a percentage of total cards issued is two-and-a half times higher than in India. Besides, the spend per card in Sri Lanka is also higher than India," a source said. On an average, a credit card holder in India spends between Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,000 per card per month. Total number of credit cards in force (CIF) in India were between 8.75 and nine million in December. Both Citibank and ICICI Bank claim to be the number one player with over a two million card base. Standard Chartered has a 1.5 million card base, while HSBC issued around seven lakh cards. These five collectively account for about 71 per cent of the market. Among the rest, HDFC Bank, the latest entrant, has acquired a card base of over 4 lakh and ABN Amro around three lakh. ICICI Bank has taken the product to 67 cities and SBI Cards is present in over 40 cities. Standard Chartered is present in 18 cities and Citibank in 30 cities. The Visa and MasterCard data available for 2002 show Japan has 1.12 billion cards, followed by China 1.1 billion and South Korea 64 million. However, these numbers are inclusive of credit and debit cards. In India, the comparable number in 2002 was 12.86 million. Now, it could be around 24 million as debit cards have already overtaken credit cards. The Indian credit card industry has been witnessing around a 31 per cent compounded annual growth rate. On account of over-aggressiveness of the players, the default rate in credit card business has been increasing. It was to the tune of 8.75 per cent in October 2003 - much higher than 6.5 per cent in 2001. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Email From ""Rajendra S. Pai" <rajendra.pai@xxxxxxxxx>" was security checked by 3.90 version of CxProtect(tm) On: mail_store at: 09:13:07, 28-Jan-2004 Wednesday ---------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** Mailing list (sbinews@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) related information: News/articles about SBI and Banking related matters published in the print media, Internet etc will be circulated through this Mailing List. The messages in this list will help in improving awareness of SBI and its activities vis-a-vis the happenings in the Banking industry. This should be of help to all staff members of SBI, particularly those who are preparing for promotional written tests/interviews/group discussions. Subscription to this Mailing List is simple and FREE. Please check the procedure below. Please share this information with other colleagues/branches that could be interested in subscribing to this Mailing List. The messages circulated here should not be deemed to have the official endorsement of the SBI or any of its employees. The correct factual position may be ascertained from official sources. To join this mailing list, just send an email to sbinews-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word 'subscribe' without the quotes in the subject of the email message. To leave this mailing list, just send an email to sbinews-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject of the email message. Archives (old messages) are available for viewing at: //www.freelists.org/archives/sbinews Click on the month-year at the lower left corner to view messages posted during that month. This is an announcements/newsletter type mailing list i.e. only the Moderator/s can post messages to the list. This mailing list is maintained and moderated by Sri. R.S.Pai, currently working as Chief Manager(IT-Internet Banking), SBI, Corporate Centre, Mumbai. Visit http://rspai.tripod.com for some useful Banking, Reference and Utilities Links