ANZ Panin reopens credit card business

JAKARTA (JP): ANZ Panin Bank, in cooperation with Visa Card International, relaunched its credit card operation on Tuesday two years after the financial crisis put an abrupt end to the initial launch.

The operation will use the credit card facility ANZ Panin acquired from the liquidated Bank Papan Sejahtera.

"I am very optimistic about the future of the Indonesian economy, which is showing positive signs of recovery," ANZ Banking Group Limited managing director Charles V. Carbonaro announced.

Australian-based ANZ Banking Group Ltd. owns 85 percent of the equity in the foreign joint venture bank, with publicly listed Panin Bank holding the remaining 15 percent.

ANZ Panin acquired the credit card operation of Bank Papan Sejahtera from the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency in May for A$7 million (US$4.7 million). The operation has 47,000 credit card accounts.

Carbonaro said the bank hoped to expand its credit card business as rapidly as possible, taking into account the recovery of the Indonesian economy.

"We are committed to becoming a leading card issuer in Indonesia and we are looking forward to building on our customer base for future growth in cards and in other consumer banking products," he said.

The banking group will use its relationship with Panin Bank to formulate a strategy to promote its products, he said.

Carbonaro also said the group was studying the possibility of introducing a number of different services, including debit cards, smart cards and electronic cash cards, within the next three to four years.

Visa Executive Vice President of Southeast Asia and Greater China James G. Murray, who was present at the launching, said that in the Asia Pacific, 20 percent of the people used payment cards for transactions.

In Indonesia, however, 96 percent of the people still use cash, Murray said.

"The trends that are happening across the region will happen in Indonesia as well", he said, adding that Indonesia could leapfrog other countries in the use of payment cards due to the country's economic recovery and undeveloped payment infrastructure.

The new trend in the payment card market is the use of the Internet for business transactions, he said.

While payment card usage in the real world increased by 15 percent to 20 percent each year, the increase on the Internet was 300 percent, he said.

He predicted that in the Asia Pacific, Internet transactions would increase by between US$10 billion and $220 billion per year over the next five years.

Separately, ANZ Panin Bank president Ian Colley said the ANZ group hoped to acquire 20 percent equity in Panin Bank within the next two months, to add to its current 4.9 percent holding.

Panin is considered a healthy bank compared to most other Indonesian banks, which are experiencing financial difficulties. Panin is not among the candidates for the government's massive bank recapitalization program.

ANZ earlier said it was increasing its stake in Panin Bank as part of its strategy to strengthen its presence in Indonesia's banking sector.(02)