Mumbai:
SBI Cards, a subsidiary of the State Bank of India, is planning to offer credit cards to those who have a Rs 25,000 fixed deposit in any bank.
There will not be any charges on the card and it will be given away without seeking any proof of income or a credit history.
Also, the SBI arm has plans to offer credit cards to students of to 100 institutions in the country without any proof of income.
SBI Cards recently surpassed ICICI Bank and became the second largest card issuer after HJDFC Bank. Its parent SBI is looking towards launching five lakh additional swipe machines soon.
"Initially, this will be only for SBI customers but in future the lien can be on any bank's FD," Vijay Jasuja, CEO, SBI Cards was quoted as saying by a leading national daily.
SBI Cards will launch the credit card in January, while for students, it will be launched in December.
He said that with interoperable QR acceptance, aggregators are expected to enroll shopkeepers, enabling wider acceptance of cards. The other advantage in getting first-time users into credit cards is that the bank will be able to get a credit history, making it possible to extend personal loans in future.
