DBS Bank India to launch proprietary credit card by June, says ED Mani

DBS Bank India Limited, a hundred per cent subsidiary of Singapore headquartered DBS Bank, will by June this year roll out its proprietary credit cards, Bharath Mani, Executive Director (Head-National Distribution) said on Tuesday. 

This credit card offering will be targeted at mass affluent and above (premium segment, including HNIs), he said. 

Mani highlighted that the credit card market opportunity is huge and demographics in India also work in favour of banks, such as DBS, to expand its play in the credit card segment (unsecured debt market).. 

Currently, DBS Bank India has co-branded credit card with Bajaj Finserv —Bajaj Finserv DBS Bank SuperCard.

Meanwhile, Mani said that DBS Bank India is also planning to foray into the affordable housing loans segment this fiscal. It will look to target mostly customers in the Tier II and Tier III cities for selling this product. 

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This lender, which is the country’s largest foreign bank by branches, is looking to grow its retail and SME book by five times in the next five years, Mani added. This is part of the bank’s overall strategy to emerge as a primarily retail/SME-focused bank in the next five years. “We want to pivot from being a Corporate focused to a retail-focused bank. The share of corporate loans will come down as the overall loan book increases in the coming years. It does not mean we will not do corporate loans, but the share will go down”, Mani said. 

DBS Bank India, which now has 522 physical branches in the country, will look add another 80-100 branches in the next 18 month with bulk of this increase expected to come in North and Western India, he said..

DBS Bank India had few years back acquired Lakshmi Vilas Bank (South India Based). Asked if any more inorganic growth opportunities are now being considered by DBS Bank India, he replied in the negative.

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