IndusInd Bank Ltd. has won the bidding to acquire the Indian credit card business of Deutsche Bank India Pvt. Ltd., an official at the former tells PaymentsSource on the condition of anonymity.
Deutsche Bank chose Mumbai-based IndusInd as the preferred bidder for its Indian credit card business on March 22, according to the official, who works in the IndusInd’s alternate payment channels department. A formal announcement is forthcoming, he says.
“Expect an announcement in the next two weeks,” the official says. “This deal will mark IndusInd’s entry to the Indian credit card market.”
PaymentsSource reported in December that Deutsche Bank had received bids from 11 banks for its card business, including ICICI Bank Ltd., Karnataka Bank Ltd., Dhanlaxmi Bank Ltd., Yes Bank Ltd., and Standard Chartered Bank India Pvt. Ltd. (
But it was Mumbai-based Axis Bank Ltd. in the end that competed with IndusInd in the last leg of the selection process, according to the official. However, only IndusInd agreed to retain the 217 employees that work in Deutsche Bank’s Indian card operations, resulting in Axis dropping out of the race.
Deutsche Bank has 150,000 credit cardholders in India and outstandings totaling nearly 2.5 billion rupees (US$55 million or 42 million euros). The bank issues both Visa- and MasterCard-branded cards.
