To give a boost to its sagging credit card business, Indian Overseas Bank has tied-up with American Express Banking Corp to offer co-branded credit cards.
Talking to media persons, Mr M. Narendra, Chairman and Managing Director, IOB, said the bank would tap customers whose average balance is over Rs 5 lakh in metropolitan cities and Rs 1 lakh in urban centres.
Although IOB had launched its own credit card in 2006, currently only 37,000 customers had credit cards out of its total customer base of 1.5 crore. Although the number of cards is less, the average spend of the customers is about Rs 75,000 a year, said Mr Narendra.
Mr Shailesh Baidwan, Country Manager and Head – Consumer Cards Business, American Express Banking Corp, said the tie-up would help the company get access to a large customer base with their profile, credit risk and past credit history. He said the average American Express credit card customer spends about Rs 1.5 lakh a year, three times more than the average card customer spends.
The company saw a 15 per cent increase in customer spends in calendar 2010.