Recently, Standard Chartered Bank (China) Co., Ltd. announced the suspension of credit card applications, which triggered a heated debate in the industry. The reporter of Huaxia times contacted Standard Chartered Bank for an interview on this matter. The latest announcement issued by Standard Chartered Bank on February 15 sent by a person of the bank to the reporter shows that in order to better provide credit card related services, the bank is optimizing and adjusting its credit card application channels. At present, the online credit card application service is temporarily closed. At the same time, since February 20, Standard Chartered Bank will also temporarily stop accepting applications from new credit card customers from other channels.
Standard Chartered Bank also said in the announcement: "after the credit card application channel is optimized, we will restart the credit card application. Please pay attention to the announcement on our official website for the time and specific arrangement of restarting the application. During this period, the daily common cards and expired renewal of our existing credit card customers will not be affected."
In addition to Standard Chartered Bank, Bank of East Asia, Citibank and HSBC also carry out credit card business in the Chinese market. In the fierce competitive environment in the Chinese market, it is worth paying attention to how foreign banks' credit cards survive.
lowered credit card points
It is understood that previously, Standard Chartered Bank only issued two sets of credit cards, namely "Standard Chartered Zhenyi" and "Standard Chartered Zhencheng", and some users reported that the rights and interests of Standard Chartered Bank's credit card were not very rich.
In June 2021, Standard Chartered Bank also adjusted the credit card points policy downward. For each credit card account, the original rule "the cumulative total amount of effective credit card points per year shall not exceed 3.6 million points" is adjusted to "the cumulative total amount of effective credit card points per year shall not exceed 2 million points". For the domestic offline consumption of Standard Chartered RMB credit card, the original rule "get 3 points per consumption of RMB 1" is adjusted to "get 1 point per consumption of RMB 1". For Standard Chartered's US dollar credit card consumption, the original rule "10 points per US dollar consumption" is adjusted to "7 points per US dollar consumption".
On February 9 this year, Standard Chartered Bank issued a notice saying that in response to the regulatory spirit, it plans to comprehensively clean up the credit card accounts that have not been activated in the bank for more than 12 months in the near future.
Then, if Standard Chartered Bank restarts its credit card application in the future, will the relevant rights and interests be improved? In this regard, the above-mentioned person from Standard Chartered Bank told the reporter of Huaxia times on February 16: "the details after adjustment will be notified in the form of announcement."
Standard Chartered Bank established its first branch in Shanghai in 1858. In April 2007, Standard Chartered Bank (China) Co., Ltd. became the first batch of international banks incorporated locally. At present, the outlets of Standard Chartered Bank in China cover nearly 30 cities.
In 2014, Standard Chartered Bank began to launch credit cards in the Chinese market. At present, among foreign banks, the number of complaints about Standard Chartered Bank's credit card business is also relatively small. According to the notice on consumer complaints in the banking industry in the third quarter of 2021 issued by the Consumer Rights Protection Bureau of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the number of complaints in the credit card business of Standard Chartered Bank was 21 in the third quarter of last year, a year-on-year decrease of 12.5%, which was lower than that of the three foreign-funded corporate banks of Bank of East Asia, Citibank and HSBC.
foreign bank credit card
By the end of the third quarter of last year, the central bank had issued a total of 97.7 billion credit cards, an increase of 97.7% compared with the first quarter of last year. The total amount of credit cards overdue for half a year was 86.926 billion yuan, an increase of 6.26% month on month.
The competition in China's credit card market is very fierce, while foreign banks do not have much advantage in the Chinese market.
Dong Zheng, a senior credit card research expert, pointed out to the reporter of Huaxia times that the operation mode and promotion mode of foreign banks are very different from Bank Of China Limited(601988) . The concept and style of globalization may not be able to adapt to the localized market. In short, it is "ungrounded".
According to Dong Zheng, Bank Of China Limited(601988) credit card business mode has generally studied the Bank of China's Taiwan, and many bank credit card businesses have introduced credit card professionals in Taiwan, China. As a result, mainland banks have also formed this model of active promotion by relying on concessions and activities. Moreover, Chinese users' payment habits are quite special. Mobile payment has been very developed before people have cultivated the habit of swiping credit cards. Therefore, users' demand for credit cards is generally not strong, and the promotion of credit cards depends on attractive rights and interests to impress users.
Foreign users have long been accustomed to credit card consumption. Credit card business is a relatively conventional business for banks, and banks do not have to invest too much cost to promote credit cards. When foreign banks come to the Chinese market, they are weaker than Chinese local banks in marketing activities, preferential strength, brand awareness and so on.
The customer orientation of foreign banks tends to be high-end customers, as well as foreigners, people from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, with low penetration into local customers. Dong Zheng pointed out that the credit card business is a large-scale development business. Without a certain scale, the ability to resist market risks is very weak. If the customer base is small and the amount of credit card issuance is small, it is difficult to guarantee the income of credit card business.
In addition, Dong Zheng also told the reporter of China times that not only the development of credit card business of foreign banks is facing difficulties, but also the promotion of credit card business of small and medium-sized banks in China is also facing difficulties, but few publicly announced the suspension of business.
In fact, it is also common for a bank to withdraw from a regional market.
In April 2019, AEON ended the business in China's Taiwan market. After the termination, users of arrears need to continue to repay their debts to completion. In August 2019, chase bank withdrew from the Canadian credit card market, and chase bank even cancelled all the credit card arrears of Canadian cardholders.
In April 2021, Citibank announced plans to withdraw from its 13 businesses in the global market, including Chinese mainland. The goal is to focus resources and investment on businesses with more competitive advantage and scale effect, so as to improve the long-term return for the company's shareholders.
