MUMBAI, January 27: The State Bank of India (SBI) plans to have six million credit-card holders by 2000, chairman and managing director (CMD) MS Verma said.Speaking to reporters after signing an agreement with GE Capital Corporation to set up two separate companies to develop State Bank's payment-card business, Verma said the ventures would provide facilities earlier not available in the country.
The marketing company will be christened SBI Cards & Payment Services Ltd and the technology and processing company -- GE Capital Business Process Management Services Ltd.
While SBI will hold 60 per cent equity in SBI Cards and 40 per cent in GE Capital Business, GE Capital will hold 40 per cent and 60 per cent respectively.
The two companies will have an equity capital of Rs 150 crore and Rs 100 crore respectively.
The SBI card will be launched for the public by July 1 this year.Verma said SBI Cards would introduce various products including credit cards, stored-value cards and smart cards under the SBIlogo.
It will be open to all types of cards -- proprietory and franchise (Master card and Visa), Verma said.
GE Capital Business would be a profit-making entity offering processing capabilities to other institutions having high volumes of business transactions every day, including broking firms, Verma said.
"SBI cards are being launched at an opportune time as the spending capacity in the country has turned favourable and processing technologies too are available now," Verma added.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
