SBI Card eyes 25% growth in card base this fiscal

Kolkata: SBI Card, a joint venture of the State Bank of India and GE Capital, is looking at a 25 percent growth in its card base and around 33 percent growth in spend in the current fiscal, a top company official said on Thursday.  Aimed at cardless transaction, the credit card issuer is also in a process to develop Host Card Emulation (HCE) technology so that data of a customer’s card can be stored in his/her mobile. The technology will help in the use of mobile for card transactions. “We grew by 14-15 percent in terms of number of cards (card base) in the last fiscal and we are looking at a 25 percent growth this fiscal. We plan to add more than one million cards in the current fiscal,” said company’s Chief Executive Officer Vijay Jasuja. The credit card insurer – which currently maintains a market share of 15 percent – has a card base of 3.75 million. “We have seen the growth in spend at about 33 percent in the last fiscal and we are looking at a similar growth in terms of spending this year,” he said at the launch of SBI Card ELITE, a premium card. Of the total portfolio, about 85 per cent of its cards is for mass segment while premium segment constitutes the rest, Jasuja said. “We are working on to develop the HCE technology so that the data of customer’s card can be stored in his mobile, not in plastic. Using this technology a user can transact at any NFC (near field communication) terminal with his/her mobile phone,” he said.