Krungsri Credit Card (KCC) plans to expand new credit cards by 300,000 to reach 2.2 million cards this year through product rebranding and promotions targeting Generation Y.
The moves are expected to result in total card spending of 190 billion baht in 2018, said KCC managing director Somwang Toraktrakul.
In 2017, the company had 1.9 million credit card holders, mostly in the age range of 35-45.
Generation Y cardholders, who are typically at least 20 years old with a monthly salary of 20,000 baht, make up about 20% of the total.
Although the company's research indicates that age does not affect the spending behaviour of existing customers, it would be better to expand the credit card base for new generation cardholders to prepare for future business growth, Mr Somwang said.
"Generation Y customers are expected to climb to 30% next year as a result of our rebranding operations, which focus on credit cards' three features: dining, shopping and travelling," he said. "These are categories that cardholders normally spend on."
The company is confident that these new targeted customers, who are young and have smaller earnings compared with older cardholders, will not cause an uptick in non-performing loans (NPLs), he said, citing KCC's strong credit analysis team.
The rebranding budget worth 40 million baht will be put towards remaking the card's image and redesigning products and services, as well as creating promotional campaigns to attract younger customers, Mr Somwang said.
The company plans for redesigned products and services to be launched along with promotional campaigns in the second half to serve various customer segments.
In the first six months, the company logged 150,000 new cards. Total card spending in the period reached 90 billion baht, up 9% year-on-year.
This year's NPL target is expected to be lower than 1%, down from the current bad-loan ratio of 1.1% for KCC cards and 1.2% for all cards issued by the company, Mr Somwang said.
