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Life Insurance Corp. of India reportedly has pushed back the launch of its first credit card to the end of March. The company, which had planned to introduce the card in January, will work with Mangalore-based Corporation Bank to issue the card. The bank issues Visa-branded cards. Press reports and the bank blame the delay on unspecified "technical glitches." The "glitches have been smoothed over, and we should see a launch" by 1 April, a bank spokesperson tells CardLine Global. Life Insurance representatives did not respond to a CardLine Global request for comment. This is not the first problem Life Insurance has faced in trying to launch its credit card. The bank had wanted to work with GE Money, but it dropped that plan after charging that GE Money's similar partnership with the State Bank of India was less than successful. Neither that bank nor GE Money would comment to CardLine Global about the matter. "Corporation Bank has a strong presence and branch network in southern India," Prathima Rajan, an India-based analyst for United States-based research firm Celent LLC, tells CardLine Global. "This could be one of the reasons for choosing this bank."
