Speaking to The Financial Express Vijay Parekh, president Asia, Pacific and Australia, American Express International said the bank is in the process of finalising alliances for different parts of the country for launching its new credit products. The tie-ups are necessary for American Express to build a distribution network.

Refusing to make any pre-announcement about the details of the products, Parekh said that the announcements can be expected soon. American Express is launching new products at the rate of one product a month in the South-East Asia and Australian markets, he said. But this is not possible in India as there are no credit bureaux to help measure credit risks for different consumers, he added.

Speaking about credit cards, Parekh said there is very little product differentiation in the credit-card market currently. ``Most credit cards in the market are engaged in cash-cowing the consumer,'' he remarked. American Express has broken this uniformity of products in the market with the launch of its credit-card which charges a lower annual subscription as well as a lower rate of interest than competitive cards, Parekh claimed.``Till now consumers had virtually no choice, they could either buy a card and suffer the lack of choice in the market or not participate at all,'' he said.

After the launch of its premium category charge card in 1993, American Express segmented the top-end of the market with the launch of charge cards in the categories of gold and a platinum. This was followed-up late last year with the launch of a credit card for the mass market.

Elaborating about the bank's current strategy to provide credit products to different consumer segments, Parekh said that this is not a newly fashioned strategy whereby the bank is shedding its image as a purveyor of exclusive products. He reiterated that the bank is not changing course to follow a marketing strategy of working on higher volumes and lower margins. With respect to margins, Parekh said that there is a ``hurdle rate'' which cannot be transcended easily.

The current down-turn in the Indian economy has not affected the bank's outlook for India, Parekh underscored. It is in difficult times that consumers are on the look-out for better value products, he said. ``It is in such times that it becomes easier to win consumer allegiance,'' he added. Despite the down-turn the bank is not witnessing any shrinkage in revenues and unlike other financial sector companies is not engaged in downsizing operations, he stressed.