BCA takes credit for 30 percent card growth in first quarter

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

PT Bank Central Asia (BCA) says its credit-card business is set to continue its excellent performance, with up to 30 percent growth expected.

BCA director Suwignyo Budiman said Wednesday that at the end of the first quarter, the number of credit cards issued by the bank had increased by around 30 percent from the same period in 2006, and he predicted similar growth for the entire year.

BCA currently has almost 1.5 million cardholders, with outstanding credit amounting to Rp 2 trillion (US$227 million).

"We've been experiencing an average of 30 to 35 percent growth in cardholder numbers and outstanding credit from year to year," said Suwignyo after the launch of the bank's latest product, the BCA Visa Platinum credit card.

The platinum card is targeted at premium customers, including the 90,000 holders of BCA Prioritas savings accounts.

General manager Jonny Herjawan said he believed that 80 to 90 percent of BCA Prioritas customers would likely be interested in the new card.

However, he said that this year the bank was only targeting the issuance of between 15,000 and 20,000 platinum cards, accounting for about 16 to 22 percent of BCA Prioritas customers, for this year, and around 50,000 cards, accounting for 55 percent of BCA Prioritas customers, by the end of next year.

The BCA Visa Platinum card offers various benefits, including Visa worldwide privileges, the Visa Platinum Concierge service, Visa Platinum Club membership, medical assistance at clinics in both Indonesia and overseas, and accident insurance of up to Rp 1 billion.

Prior to the launch of the new card, BCA had issued a number of other credit cards, such as the BCA card, BCA MasterCard, BCA Visa and BCA JCB.

All of the BCA cards can be used at millions of outlets worldwide, including more than 50,000 in Indonesia. The cards can also be used at 800 BCA offices and more than 4,700 ATMs throughout the country.

Suwignyo said that with the expected sharp increase in the number of the bank's cardholders, its credit-card business would make a significant contribution to BCA's total revenues this year.

"But I can't say the exact percentage it will contribute to profits," he said. "However, it will be quite significant and will keep growing from year to year."

BCA earned a net profit last year of Rp 4.24 trillion, up 18 percent from Rp 3.59 trillion in 2005.

Jonny said that in 2006, BCA controlled about 10 percent of the domestic credit-card market, which had about 8.1 million cards in circulation from 20 different issuers.