All articles by Verdict Staff
Verdict Staff
Region round-up
HSBC will open new branches in the Chinese cities.. Australian retail giant Woolworths is making its first foray into financial services.. Al Salam Bank Banhrain has unveiled platinum and gold Visa credit cards..
Shariah solutions for the excluded
Islamic cards are appearing with increasing regularity. In this guest article, Paul Bartholomew-Keen, business leader of prepaid Europe at MasterCard, examines how card payment providers are tapping into the growing Islamic segment, and asks if there is a role for prepaid Islamic solutions as well.
HSBC’s Household headache
HSBC again produced a resilient set of results for the first half of 2008 despite big write-downs in its US business. The bank’s CEO Michael Goeghegan told CI that the US is crucial to its global cards business and has launched plans to standardise the unit across the globe.
Region round-up
ANZ has introduced the first mobile banking service in Vietnam… Indias ICICI Bank has launched a branch-free banking operation… Bahrain-based Ahli United Bank (AUB) has launched a new Platinum credit card.
Citi may renege on default pledge
US credit card issuer Citi may reverse a pledge it made last year to no longer reserve the right to raise interest rates on credit cards, at any time, for any reason a practice known in the industry as universal default, for which Citi and other issuers faced intense criticism from US regulators and lawmakers.
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Mapping credit card opportunities in Asia
Emerging economies offer big growth potential to savvy issuers, but vastly different political and economic considerations in various markets mean that issuers must tailor their strategies to individual countries. Craig Vosburg, regional business leader at MasterCard Advisors, outlines the growth opportunities.
Europe enters a new era of opportunity
Over the last year, the global cards and payments industry has witnessed the introduction of SEPA, further consolidation across several industry sectors, and technological innovation, all of which, when combined with the ongoing evolution taking place in cards and payments across the world, make this sector one of the most exciting and sometimes challenging to be in.
Credit’s gain in Spain
The reduction of interchange levels in Spain has been an unexpected boost for the countrys card issuers, and the major players are using sophisticated consumer segmentation methods to appeal to a wide array of cardholders.
Region round-up
Indias ICICI Bank has launched a new card aimed at the growing affluent sector… Global payment processor First Data has signed a card processing agreement… Ugandas Stanbic Bank has recently issued 1,600 credit cards to its high net worth customers.
Region round up
China UnionPay plans to offer its card services to 30 countries around the world… The Times Group of India has launched an entertainment credit card… Emirates Islamic Bank (EIB), Skywards and Visa have joined forces… Approximately two million people in the UK have had their credit card limits cut… Capital One is to shed 750 jobs from its European headquarters…