Affin Bank launches World MasterCard, aims more customers

KUALA LUMPUR: Affin Bank Bhd is targeting a take-up of 10,000 new credit cards this year from the affluent segment with its newly-launched AffinBank World MasterCard.
Its director of consumer banking Idris Abd Hamid said the bank currently has 230,000 credit and debit card holders.
"This year, we're looking at (an additional) 10,000 cards and next year another 10,000 to 20,000 cards. We want to have good affluent customers," he told a press conference after the launch of the Affin Bank World MasterCard here yesterday.
He said in the first phase of the AffinBank World MasterCard launch, the bank is targeting the product at its own pool of high net worth customers. It aims to eventually achieve a take-up of 50,000 cards from the affluent segment in stages.
"The high net worth customers are also customers of other banks. We're trying to pull them to Affin," said Idris.
This is supported by Affin's competitive finance charge at 9.99% per year, which is one of the lowest in the market, compared with other banks charging some 15% to 19%, said Idris. The AffinBank World MasterCard also offers customers a cash rebate of 0.8% on their total monthly retail spending.
Credit card is (still) a small portion of Affin's consumer banking business, which includes credit cards, personal loans, mortgages, savings or current and deposit taking services as well as hire purchase.
The bank started its credit card business in 2002 and has launched several card products to cater to selected customer segments.
"(Hence) We're embarking into World cards and high net worth customers because this is where we're talking about deepening share of wallets."
He explained that a bank would want to sell many products to its customers.
"The cost of selling a product is expensive to a new customer because the cost of acquiring a new customer is more. With existing customers, if you can sell more products to them, you will get better profits because your cost is lower."
He said the launch of the card is a step forward in the bank's card business. The credit card business has significantly changed in the last 10 years due to the evolving lifestyle and needs of the customers.
He added that Affin expects an 8% to 10% loan growth for its consumer banking business this year, on the back of a challenging environment with expectation of rising interest rate.