StanChart Bank to foray into tier-two cities

Chennai: Standard Chartered Bank, Indias largest international bank, is planning to expand into tier-two cities. The bank is awaiting the Reserve Bank of Indias approval in this regard. We are now present in 15 Indian cities with 62 branches. End-2003 will see us in 25 cities, says StanChart Bank general manager and head (credit cards and personal loans) Srinivasan Shyam.

StanChart Bank regional head (corporate affairs, India) Neel Chatterjee says the bank has created an asset base of Rs 29,000 crore (consumer banking: 32 per cent; wholesale banking: 68 per cent) with its 2-million customer base. The Indian operations contribute 11 per cent to the groups profits.

The bank will be looking at small- and medium-scale enterprises and non-resident Indians for increasing its business, apart from following a three-pronged approach to dominate its credit card business. Our strategy is to augment our credit card business strength, establish leadership in the investment services business and develop our mortgage business organically, says Shyam.

Claiming his bank is No 1 in the credit card business, Shyam says the market is growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 25 per cent. Only 5 million credit cards are in use now, while the cardable population is 10 million. StanChart has issued 1.3 million credit cards and claims to be the leader in terms of the share of market outstanding. Shyam says the total outstanding will be around Rs 5,000 crore, out of which StanCharts share is 32 per cent.

About the three-pronged approach to increase credit card business, which contributes 50 per cent of the revenues from the consumer banking activity, Shyam says the user base will be expanded through product innovation and segment customisation, deepening the usage patterns through innovative tie-ups and special offers.