ICICI to sell cards in smaller cities

ICICI Bank said on Thursday it will push hard to take its card business further in tier-II and tier-III cities over the next one and a half years.

ICICI Bank has a whopping 30 per cent market share in the country's card market, which has just over 21 million users.

"The country's card market is very under-penetrated. The scene is paradoxical as well. While there is under-penetration, there is also multiple cards among many in the metro cities. Tier-II and tier-III cities have not been plugged and those are the areas, we are taking very seriously," ICICI Bank Executive Director V Vaidyanathan said in Mumbai while launching

a travel card in association with Thomas Cook India Limited.

The bank expects to increase its footprint in 200 cities from 120 now in the next one and a half years to market its cards, he added.

Head of the bank's card products group, Sachin Khandelwal, said the bank hopes to increase its customer base in the card segment to nine million by the end of the year from seven million now.

While the card market was growing at 20 to 25 per cent year-on-year, the growth rate at the bank was around 30 per cent, he added.

"Out of that, the rate of growth in the travel segment is higher at over 30 to 35 per cent," Vaidyanathan said.