June 30, 2010
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News: Standard Chartered Links With Smart Communications
Standard Chartered Bank has plans to grow its business which includes expanding on its credit card customer base. Currently the bank has over 175,000 cardholders in the Philippines. Not a very large chunk of the market if you consider that there are over six million credit cards in circulation in the Philippines. The bank has taken the first step in growing the business as it announced its new partnership with Smart Communication, Inc. The partnership will allow Standard to tap into Smart Communication's customer base of over 12,600 customers. Together, Standard and Smart will offer the telecom's customers the MasterCard Platinum Infinity Standard Chartered credit card.
Supratim Pandey, General Manager for Standard's Philippine Lending and Transaction Banking, said the bank is very pleased to be working with Smart Communications to offer a high-end credit card to its customers. The card is designed to make cardholders feel "more special." Pandey noted that in terms of the entire credit card market, the customer base they are talking about here is not large. However, the bank is looking more in terms of quality rather than quantity. The company is looking for a "stable, profitable business" according to Pandey. Standard Chartered offers their Infinity Standard Chartered cardholders exclusive priority banking services which include a "relationship manager" and access to a number of financial management products, preferential rates on foreign exchange and deposit placement, among others.
Standard Chartered will also be expanding in other areas. The bank has plans to expand its current number of five branches in the Philippines to six in order to manage its fast growth. Mahendra Gursahani, Standard Chartered's CEO also stated that the bank is looking into a potential site to house its expanding global operations. Standard is the largest foreign bank operating in the Philippines in terms of wealth-management among foreign banks operating in the country. In addition to its credit card business, the also offers corporate and retail banking.