The `Standard Chartered Grindlays' banner is safe for at least another 18 months, as Standard Chartered Bank goes about turning around the age-old operations of ANZ Grindlays in India. Also immutable are the close to 14 lakh Standard Chartered and Grindlays' bank cards, but for how long? In 2002, when Standard Chartered and Grindlays integrate into the largest foreign bank in the country, will a common plastic also emerge? "Well, may be," is the uncertain response at Standard Chartered Grindlays, "a common plastic cannot be ruled out..."

The response is more guarded at Standard Chartered Bank. "It is really too premature to say," we are told, "it will all depend on our experience..." So far, the two banks retain their separate identities, products and even CEOs, but the integration is expected to be at a far more "aggressive pace" in the new millennium.

The year 2001 will find Standard Chartered Bank weaving in its activities with ANZ Grindlays to build a synergy. The first signs of the inevitable integration are already evident. Standard Chartered Bank's demat services for its customers have been adopted by Standard Chartered Grindlays as well.

Like ICICI Ltd, the Housing Development and Finance Corporation (HDFC), Punjab National Bank and Canara Bank, Standard Chartered Bank acts as a depository for dematerialised stocks. The service is now also available at Standard Chartered Grindlays and is offered free to account-holders.

So, what stays and what goes? "If a product become unprofitable, we drop it," say bank executives and "drop it" would extend to the operations of both the banks in the long run. The criterion here is not where the product is available, but the product itself and the measure of its worth, (you've guessed it) is market share.

Market share makes Standard Chartered Bank the largest issuer of credit cards in India, as does the base of credit outstanding. Bankers say the card base (or the extent of credit outstanding on the cards) was really the "key yardstick" in assessing market share.

Standard Chartered Bank claims a lead in both the number of card holders and card base. Worldwide, American Express brags of being the largest issuer of cards, but in India, Standard Chartered is an uncontested market leader. The Standard Chartered Bank card is believed to have 24 per cent of the market in its grip. The Grindlays Bank card lags behind with a market share that is not more than 14 per cent. The combined marketing muscle of the merged banks extends to 38 per cent of the credit card business.

If the shared demat services is an indication, the Grindlays grey and Standard Chartered's blue and green plastics will soon begin to imitate each other's value-added services. When that happens, what will be the hue of the new card, or will brand loyalties prompt separate identities?

The only certainty at this point, after all, is the Grindlays brand name, which will stay for another two years. The Grindlays brand has its own charm in tradition steeped India, where sons like to bank with their father's bankers. The loyalty of customers, in a way, ensures the longevity of the brand.

"The idea is to capture the mind of the customer," say the men in black at Standard Chartered Bank, and in those minds, the merger is a sign of strength. A bigger, stronger bank should stand for better value for money and better services.

Standard Chartered Bank has 20 branches in India and Standard Chartered Grindlays has 39, which, pooled together, becomes a network of 59 outlets. Even though the pooled network is not comparable with that of the nationalised banks, it does give the merged entity a definite edge over all other foreign banks.

The pooled products, such as ATM services, Any-Branch-Banking, phone banking, credit, debit and charge cards, would work out to quite a pile. Even so, the truth remains that the July merger of ANZ Grindlays businesses with Standard Chartered Bank mean little or nothing to their customers in December.

Bankers at both ends say the year ahead will be "critical". Standard Chartered Bank is expected to "go on the offensive" in synergising its activities with ANZ Grindlays. "Customers are waiting to see how we turn Grindlays around," they say.

In reality, customers are waiting to see a lot more. They would like to know, for instance, if all the me-too retail banking products of the two banks will stay and if customers of one will, in the long run, be able to use the infrastructure of the other.

"In 2002, will I be able to drop my Standard Chartered card payment cheque at a Grindlays pick-up box?'' we ask at a Standard Chartered Grindlays branch. No forthright replies are available just yet, but the pause between the words, seems affirmative.