BII's card unit eyeing big time

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Fri, 04/21/2006 10:22 AM  |  Business

Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII), established in 1959 and now one of the country's biggest private sector banks, is hoping to become the country's second largest credit-card issuer in terms of cardholder numbers this year, notwithstanding growing competition in the market.

BII's deputy head of credit-card marketing, Don J.P. Bustan, said Wednesday that the bank, now the fifth largest issuer after Citibank, Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), Bank Mandiri and HSBC, was offering a number of incentives and rewards to cardholders in a bid to achieve its target.

He said that in addition to providing incentives, such as cash bonuses and price discounts in collaboration with merchants, BII was also continually increasing the number of merchants participating in its programs.

""We're optimistic that we can increase the number of our cardholders to 1.05 million by the end of the year from 700,000 at the end of last year, thus bring us up to second place,"" he explained.

He said that BII was also striving to increase the value of credit-card transaction by about 50 percent this year from Rp 1.6 trillion in 2005.

""We are focussing on providing more bonuses and discounts to encourage customers to use their BII cards,"" the bank's managing director Rudi N. Hamdani said before signing an agreement between the bank and PT Sri Agung Cahya Sakti, the owner of Izzi Pizza.

Incentives were needed to enable the bank to compete with other credit-card issuers, which also offered similar incentive packages.

BII issues various types of credit cards, including the BII Classic/Regular, BII Gold, BII Platinum, BII Infinite, Lion Air (Gold and Platinum), AstraWorld (Gold and Regular) and BII MC2. The bank's cardholders can use their cards to make purchases at more than 900 merchants nationwide.

Based on Wednesday's agreement, BII gold and debit cardholders will enjoy 25 percent discounts on purchases at Izzi Pizza outlets. The promotion will last for a year. (07)

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.