Standard Chartered Bank India Pvt. Ltd. is adopting a more aggressive stancetoward the Indian credit card market thanks to positive changes in the market, a top bank official said on Sep. 19.
Because of lowering delinquency rates, the bank will work harder to secure new credit cardholders over the next year, Shymal Saxena, the bank’s retail banking head, noted during a press conference in Mumbai, according to local media reports and confirmed by a bank spokesperson.
The country’s credit environment is improving, and the country’s credit bureaus, which are helping banks to make more diligent decisions, have addressed risk dangers such as overleveraging, he said.
As part of its new strategy, the bank this month started approving credit card applications online, a bank spokesperson tells PaymentsSource.
“The application form is available on the bank’s website,’ he says. “Customers can fill in the information and get an in-principle approval within 30 seconds of the online form’s submission.”
The bank has a base of 1.1 million credit cardholders that it expects will grow considerably because of the marketing push, according to the spokesperson.
Standard Chartered is competing with Mumbai-based State Bank of India Ltd. for the credit card business of Barclays India Pvt. Ltd., the struggling India-based subsidiary of Britain-based Barclays PLC (
