India’s Top 500 Companies 2019

INDIA’S TOP 500 COMPANIES 2019 114 Experts’ View SBI Cards & Payment Services Private Limited SBI Card is one of the largest credit card issuers and payment service providers in India. What are the key factors that contribute to the success of your business? SBI Cardhas recentlycrossedthemilestone of 8 million cards with the total card base standing at 8.2 million as of March 2019. It has witnessed a strong growth phase in the last few years with the average card acquisition rate increasing to 2.5- 3 lakhs per month at present from 1 lakh cards per month in December 2016. Today, the company contributes around 17.5% in average spends share industrywide and holds 17.4% market share in total cards volume. This substantial growth has been the result of our focus on key areas that include- • We significantly increased our card portfolio and tapped new consumer segments right from the premium segment through SBI Card ELITE and SBI Card PRIME; to online shoppers through SimplyCLICK SBI Card to Doctors’ community through Doctor’s SBI Card to address their distinct lifestyle and needs. • SBI Card has the largest number of co-brand cards across the widest category spread, in the industry. We have strong co-brand partnerships with brands who are leaders in their respective segments which include Etihad Guest, TATA, Future Group, Air India and IRCTC. At present, co-branded category contribute at around 20 percent to our overall card portfolio. • Our alliances and cashback programs have played an instrumental role in driving spends. We offer cashback programs at much larger scale as compared to other card players thus offering maximum value. In addition to this, our strong rewards program enable us to offer a strong value proposition across all our cards through attractive reward points on card spends. • Our focus on e-commerce has been key in driving growth on card spends. We have built significant partnerships in e-Commerce space, one of these being our exclusive partnership with Flipkart for Big Billion Day sale events. Our online spends constitute about 45-50% of the total spends on our credit cards and are poised to grow further. • At SBI Card, technology and technology-led initiatives have always been an integral part of the strategy to deliver a seamless experience to customers. SBI Card has been making focused investments in technology – both, at the back-end and to the customer- facing digital touch point. With increasing instances of data breach in the banking industry, what approach is SBI Card taking to avoid such crimes? We have a robust security framework to minimise any possibility of such occurrences. We are committed to remain compliant with all RBI guidelines to ensure complete security of our cardholders’ data. We are currently compliant with ISO 27001 and are working towards PCI DSS. What is your business outlook for the next five years? We are focused on building innovative products that meet the needs of diverse customer segments. SBI Card has been successful in creating a steady growth trajectory over past few years which is well reflected in our CIF growth of 33% from FY18 to FY19. To take SBI Card’s growth to the next level, there are a fewkey areas that the company will focus on. In order to ramp up our new customer acquisition, we are tapping the vast SBI customer base through Project Shikhar under which we are offering pre- approved cards to eligible SBI customers. We will maintain our strong focus on customer engagement by offering innovative products and maximum value through partnership with relevant and preferred brands to drive spends. We will continue to invest on digital innovation and will leverage new-age technologies such as AI, Robotics, Chatbots etc with the ultimate objective of providing best- in-class payments experience to our customers. Last but not the least, talent will continue to be a priority for us and our goal is to become the most preferred employer brand. We aim to offer our employees an enriched work environment and open company culture while enabling them to fast track their careers to meet their long-term career aspirations. HARDAYAL PRASAD Managing Director & CEO Dun & Bradstreet