CorpBank launches international card

Corporation Bank has gone ahead and launched its credit card business following delays in its proposed joint credit card foray with alliance partners, Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) and Indian Bank.

The three public sector banks had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for alliance in November.

However, with the OIC joint credit card venture expected to take at least another nine months to get off the ground, the Corporation Bank has decided not to delay its credit card foray any longer. The Mangalore-based bank has tied up with Visa International for its credit card business.

B Sambamurthy, chairman and managing director, Corporation Bank, said the bank would issue two variants of the credit card "� Classic and Gold Credit cards. While the Classic is a mass market entry level credit card, the Gold card is targeted at high income individuals.

The bank has also tied up with Venture Infotek Global, a transaction processing and knowledge management company, as its back-end partner for the credit card operation.

According to an OIC spokesperson, the alliance had agreed on having a common back-end. Since, no investments have been made in the back-end, the banks can shift their credit card ventures to the common joint outfit.

For the joint credit card venture, the bank troika plans to float a non-banking financial company (NBFC) and rope in a foreign partner for which regulatory clearances are required. This is expected to take at least another nine months.

As an inaugural offer, the Corporation Bank will not charge any joining fee. The cardholders can also avail of one per cent cash back on all purchases and receive a waiver of 2.5 per cent surcharge on petrol. The bank, which launched its debit cards in 2003, in association with Visa International, has issued more than two million debit cards.

At the launch of the bank's credit card, deputy governor, Reserve Bank of India, V Leeladhar called upon public sector banks to make all efforts to achieve 100 per cent financial inclusion.

The banks not only need to ensure that they bring a larger section of the population under banking but also work towards spreading financial literacy.

The banks should join hands with respective state governments to publish literature regarding how to open a bank account and relevant material connected with bank transactions and circulate them among school children to educate the masses, he said.