BDNI launches Visa card

JAKARTA (JP): Bank Dagang Nasional Indonesia (BDNI), a publicly listed commercial bank, has launched the BDNI Visa Gold and Classic credit cards with an issuing target of 75,000 cards this year.

Raymond Lukas, general manager for marketing of the bank's card center, said Tuesday that the bank is trying to grab an opportunity in the retail market since the economy is growing by around 7 percent per year.

"With the issuance of the new cards, the bank's revenue from the credit card business is expected to increase from 36 percent to 50 percent of its total fee-based revenues," he said.

The bank's fee-based revenues were recorded at Rp 77.89 billion (US$32.28 million) in 1996.

After its soft launch last December, the 51-year-old bank has thus far issued about 4,000 Visa cards.

Ellyana Fuad, the representative of Visa International for Indonesia, said the number of Visa cards distributed in Indonesia increased to 920,000 as of last December, which represented about 60 percent of total credit cards issued in the country. (10)