DBS Bank India to expand credit card offerings

DBS Bank India is focusing on expanding its credit card offerings in the next two years, says Sajish Pillai, Managing Director and Head of Assets and Strategic Alliances, Consumer Banking Group, DBS Bank India. The bank is planning to launch a premium card and a mass-affluent card to cater to a varied range of customer segments.

DBS Bank India is focusing on expanding its credit card offerings in the next two years, says Sajish Pillai, Managing Director and Head of Assets and Strategic Alliances, Consumer Banking Group, DBS Bank India. The bank is planning to launch a premium card and a mass-affluent card to cater to a varied range of customer segments.

“Over the next 24 months, our focus will be on growing these credit card offerings. Subsequently, we will explore commercial and business card variants,” Pillai said.

The bank has launched two credit card offerings so far. The Bajaj Finserv DBS Bank Super-Card, which targets the mass affluent or mass customer segments and the invite-only DBS Vantage Card, which is designed for high-net-worth individuals.

Since its launch in April 2022, the Bajaj Finserv DBS Bank SuperCard has acquired more than 300,000 customers. The bank’s outstanding credit cards stood at 320,464 as on June 30, and spending on the cards clocked Rs. 290 crore, data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed.

Broadly, the bank offers retail lending products like personal loans, credit cards, gold loans, home loans, loans against property and overdraft facilities to salaried professionals and self-employed individuals.

“Our retail loan book has seen consistent additions of 400-500 crore per month, largely fuelled by gold loans, unsecured lending, and credit card balances, "Pillai said, adding that the bank has achieved significant growth in its current account savings account (CASA) deposits fuelled by the competitive interest rates on savings accounts and fixed deposits.

Among other products, the bank is keen on expanding its gold loan portfolio significantly in the coming years as a part of its diversified lending strategy. The bank had inherited the gold loan portfolio as a part of the Lakshmi Vilas Bank amalgamation around three years ago. In a bid to grow the gold loan business, the bank aims to leverage its branch footprint of 530 branches, spread across more than 350 locations, to reach a larger customer base. Here, it will prioritise markets where gold loans are already an in-demand product.

Additionally, the bank intends to partner with intermediaries like business correspondents and direct selling agents to acquire new-to-bank customers. “We will also expand our co-lending partnership to serve additional geographies and customer segments where we are not physically present,” Pillai said.

“With all these initiatives, we want to make sure that our overall gold loan proposition really stands apart from other offerings in the market and sets the benchmark,” he added. Currently, the bank’s gold loan book stands at 6,000 crore. It plans to grow this to more than 14,000 crore over the next three years.

As featured in the Financial Express