Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) is eyeing a partnership model to help the bank achieve 2.3 million more credit cards by year-end.
A partnership model on a digital platform is a key strategy for the bank to expand the credit card base this year, said Narong Srichukrin, senior executive vice-president and head of the wealth segment and wealth products.
The bank will offer a full range of digital financial solutions to each business partner apart from plastic card services, he said. This will help build up the ecosystem of each business sector and the bank, in turn, can acquire significant numbers of new cardholders.
The bank has 1.9 million credit cards in circulation.
SCB also aims to increase spending through credit cards to 280 billion baht this year from 240 billion last year and raise outstanding credit card debt by 18% to 65 billion at the end of 2018.
Despite a larger credit card loan portfolio, the bank expects to keep a lid on the non-performing loans for cards at 1%, well below the industry's 2% average.
Mr Narong said that SCB, the country's second-largest lender by assets, is launching a new financial solution for shoppers with The Mall Group. The product features both digital finance and non-finance services, covering debit card, credit card, prepaid card, gift card, personal loans and i-reserved parking.
The co-branded credit card, SCB M, is expected to reach 500,000 cards, with total spending of 20 billion baht in the first year.
Mr Narong said there are other business partners in the pipeline to implement similar full-range financial solutions, encompassing travel, transport, education, and dining.
With the partnership model for co-branded credit cards on an online platform, SCB has cancelled physical credit cards, bringing the number of categories to 10 categories from 20 previously.
Separately, Apiphan Charoenanusorn, SCB's senior executive vice-president, head of retail lending products, head of retail payments and head of facility management, said the bank has lent 1 billion baht in digital personal loan products after the service was rolled out in January this year.
The bank provides digital lending for personal loan products only.
Digital loan growth is still low when compared with the bank's full-year personal loan growth target of 5 billion baht, mainly due to the slower-than-expected roll-out of the country's national digital ID.
