Credit card venture with ANZ soon

Punjab National Bank is set to float a credit card joint venture with Australian financial major ANZ in a couple of months. The venture will have an information technology firm as a third partner.

"The fact that ANZ does not have retail presence in India went in its favour as it will not result in any competition," a senior PNB official said.

ANZ is a major Australian financial institution offering home loans, car loan, business loans, credit card, Internet Banking, insurance and deposit products.

ANZ has the required credit card expertise, technological capability of appraising and issuing bills that PNB was looking for. Bank of America, Barclays of UK and India's ICICI Bank were the other players in the race for the joint venture.

Two Mumbai-based information technology firms "" FITL and VIGL "" have been shortlisted by the bank. VIGL, which has a marketing expertise also, will be making a presentation to the PNB on Thursday. The marketing expertise gives VIGL an edge over FITL. The selected IT company will provide software solutions for the credit card business.

The negotiations on shareholding pattern is likely to be held after the third partner is selected. PNB is expected to have the larger stake in the company, which is expected to be set up with initial capital of Rs 100 crore.

The non-banking finance company will set up its own offices across the country, with focus on urban and semi-urban areas.

The company will leverage PNB's over 37 million customer base and 4,550 branches and offices to tap the huge potential in the credit card business. The credit card industry is growing by over 30 per cent year-on-year. The top three big players in credit card are "" ICICI Bank, SBI Card and Citibank.