What prompted American Express to think of venturing into retail banking despite such depressed market conditions?
Well, in the Indian market, American Express has been witnessing a strong growth in all its product lines. The Amex card base is growing rapidly and recording a growth of 44 per cent, which is twice the market rate of growth.

After all, the accurateperformance measure in the card industry is the amount of spending captured on the cards. According to independent studies, the growth in spending on American Express cards in India has been over 75 per cent over the last five years. In addition, the average spend on the American Express card is three to four times more than the average spend on other credit cards in the Indian market. Naturally, we feel bouyant about the Indian market and our retain banking operations called the Personal Financial Services (PFS) -- which will launched this year -- will be an extension of the high quality, value-added services American Express provides in India. We will offer PFS products and services to all Amex carfd holders as well as other customers who look for value in financial products.

How serious is this issue of customer needs in the Indian market where a host of banks offering the facility of plastic money have drawn flak for lack of service?
American Express is the largest card issuer in the worldwith over 41 million card relationships and billings in excess of $ 208 billion. And we are extremely excited and pleased with our performance in India. Our brand is highly respected and visible and our customers value the relationship.

Our strategy begins with customer needs. While we do believe in borrowing the best practices from our global experience, eventually we match these with the needs of the customers in India, and then introduce appropriate value propositions. The approach has worked overy well for us and we have successfully introduced a number of products in recent years in ndia like the rupee billed corporate card, the membership rewards programme and then the gold card for the customers. I think as long you can match the customer's expection of prestige, convenience and tangible value on the card, the business is relatively easy going.

Yet, one keeps hearing about all banks facing tensions over customer service with a whole lot of grievances pouring in against major internationalbanks. What sort of a relationship American Express looks for when it comes to customer service?In India, like everywhere else in the world, American Express has taken the lead in innovating products and services. We have set customer service standards for others to follow. For instance, several years ago, we set 24 hour customer service centres for our card business across the world. This is now being offered by others as a ``new'' benefit. For us, this is ``given'' in the card business.

Aren't the depressed Asian markets damper these days? What sort of growth is taking place in the Asia Pacific-Australia regions?
Ironically, for American Express, the Asia Pacific Australia region is one of the fastest growing region and represents exciting potential for the future. The depressed Asian markets are a mater of concern but that has not affected our growth. There are a lot of things happening here for American Express -- new products, new partnerships, new market segments. We havesuccessfully introduced the credit card in several markets in the region and those are doing extremely well.

What sort of future investments American Express is contemplating for India in the years to come?
For us India is an important market. American Express is committed to India. We have been here since 1921 and have invested significantly in this country. We have invested in technology platforms, in customer service, in products and services and also in developing local talent in this country.

Our Financial Resources Centres (FRC) that is located in Delhi is a major global centre that takes care of financial accounting in a host of nations in Asia and Australia. In fact, we have invested tens of crores of rupees in India each year. Our commitment to India is total. We have had a very successful track record in India and we hope to build on that. We are currently evaluating several new products including credit cards as well as partnerships which we would announce soon. These new initiativeswould make our portfolio of products in India more complete and second to none.