Credit card business growing slowly

THE Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) yesterday launched its ePrepaid card to expand its presence in the credit card industry.

The card is available to just about anybody who goes to any of the bank’s branches with at least P10,000, the limit set by BPI per ePrepaid holder.

The card can be used to transact all kinds of business that is allowed in any debit card.

A person can get a my-prepaid card even if he or she is not a BPI depositor. The person only has to go to the teller of the bank and ask for the my-prepaid card, load it on an ATM and deposit the money with the same branch.

Ma. Cristina Go, senior vice-president of BPI, said that there was a slowdown in the growth of the credit card business because more Filipinos are getting the discipline after they incur defaults and are required immediate settlements or face a collection suit in court.

The Credit Card Association of the Philippines keeps a record of habitual defaulters. They are denied the card if they apply again.

Go said that in 2009, 70 per cent of credit card holders had more than one card. By 2010, the figure had dropped to 30 per cent.

The slowdown in credit card growth started in 2008 when the US economy was deeply troubled by credit issues.

Go said the credit problem forced banks to start issuing debit cards for safety reasons and to instill further financial discipline among the holders.

BPI issued some 920,000 cards in 2010 and expects its card business to come close to a million by the end of the year.

The bank has issued an estimated 5 million cards. Of this number, Go said, 3.5 million are clients or patrons of automatic teller machines (ATM).

Half million are debit card holders, and almost a million are credit card holders.

Go pointed out that the bank wants to be aggressive in the card business despite the conservative outlook in the credit cards sector.

Go said the number of multi-card holders has gone down. While the growth of the credit business itself is slow, BPI found a new way to reach out to clients who are required a limit of P10,000 per ePrepaid client. –Malaya