Big swipe

Mumbai, Dec. 6: Standard Chartered Bank is set to acquire half of the Indian credit card portfolio of Barclays — a move that will place the foreign bank among the country’s top five credit card players.

The two banks are expected to sign a deal in the next couple of days. A StanChart spokesperson refused to comment on the latest development.

Sources said StanChart would acquire around 180,000 cards from the 3 lakh customers that Barclays has. This will take its total credit card customer base to more than 1.2 million, thus placing it among the top five card issuers.

Banking circles said StanChart had reduced its focus on the credit card business in India after the 2008 financial crisis. The bank, which is heavily focused on emerging markets, is now trying to win back some of the lost ground before it takes on giants such as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Citibank and the State Bank of India who are the top four in this business.

Barclays had put up the Indian credit card business for sale as part of a restructuring of its business here. When the foreign bank had announced that it was exiting this business, players such as SBI Cards had evinced interest. However, the price for the proposed acquisition could not be ascertained.

Trends over the past couple of years have shown domestic consumers prefer debit cards to credit cards for their various transactions or purchases.

However, this has not deterred lenders from venturing into this space.

In April, IndusInd Bank acquired the loss-making credit card business of Deutsche Bank. Under the agreement, the private bank got access to around 2,00,000 card customers of the German bank.

HDFC Bank is now the country’s largest credit card issuer and it has been consolidating its presence.

In July, India’s second largest private bank launched Infinia, a premium credit card targeted at high net worth individuals with no limits.