EON Bank targets more cardholders

EON Bank Bhd expects its credit cardholder base to grow by 100,000 this year from 340,000 currently, said deputy chief executive officer group retail banking Albert Lau. 

“We feel we have a large pool of hire purchase customers. We can tap on this market,” he said after the launch of EON Bank’s Platinum MasterCard in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. 

Lau said the bank currently had a 5% market share in terms of number of cards and that it had plenty of room to grow. “Card base in the local market is expected to grow to 10 million cards in the next three to five years,” he said. 

Lau said the bank would leverage on the growing trend in credit card spending in Malaysia. Last year, total credit card spending in the country stood at RM34bil. 

He added, however, that the bank emphasised on quality and as such, was not worried about the way its credit card business grew. “We prefer the growth to be slow and steady,” he said. 

From left: Albert Lau, Datuk Maznah Jalil and MasterCard International vice-president for marketing, South-East Asia, Teo Ai June at the EON Bank's Platinum Mastercard launch.

On the new card, Lau said the bank planned to attract 30,000 Platinum cardholders by the end of this year. These would include new members as well as the bank's existing Gold Card holders currently numbering 100,000. 

EON Capital Bhd director Datuk Maznah Abdul Jalil said with the new card, EON Bank was positioned to offer more variety and options to its existing one million customers. 

“We believe that this range and variety is imperative as we further build on and diversify our existing customer base,” she said.  

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