TAIPEI: Citibank Taiwan Ltd yesterday launched a credit card with airline mileage incentives catering to rising travel demand among affluent clients.
The new product was the lender’s latest effort to grow revenue and clients amid fierce competition in the local market.
Since the end of 2014, the number of outbound travelers has grown by a compound annual rate of 11 percent to 11.84 million, Citibank said.
About 33 percent of Taiwanese with annual incomes greater than NT$1.4 million (US$43,163) go abroad at least twice per year, while 17 percent fly overseas once, constituting about half of the higher-income demographic, the bank said, citing external research it commissioned.
The Citi PremierMiles World Card taps into the frequent-fliers market by offering one “Citi Mile” for every NT$20 spent on travel, including airfare, shopping and accommodation, it said.
The new credit card allows travelers to accumulate airline miles faster through loyalty program points in a Citi Mile account, freeing them from being tied to a limited number of carriers.
Clients can yield incentives by spending at more than 60 major airlines and 10,000 hotels worldwide, as well as at major travel agencies, the bank said.
“Unlike arrangements offered by airlines, Citi Miles have no expiration date,” Citibank Taiwan consumer banking business manager Yunny Lee said.
“Despite the higher costs of offering airline miles incentives compared with cash-back reward schemes, we strive to satisfy clients’ diverse needs by offering unparalleled flexibility,” Lee said.
In a related development, credit card spending in April reached a five-year high of NT$181 billion, Financial Supervisory Commission data showed.
During the period, Citibank Taiwan recorded about 2.9 million credit cards in use, with a delinquency ratio of 0.5, outperforming other Taiwan-based foreign banks, the data showed.
In the same period, Standard Chartered Bank (Taiwan) Ltd recorded more than 373,000 cards and a delinquency ratio of 0.44, while HSBC Bank (Taiwan) Ltd and ANZ Bank (Taiwan) Ltd recorded more than 623,000 and 567,000 cards and delinquency ratios of 0.21 and 0.46 respectively.
DBS Bank Taiwan recorded about 12,000 cards and a delinquency ratio of 1.53.
For domestic banks, CTBC Bank Co Ltd, the nation’s leading issuer, recorded more than 5.8 million cards in the same period, with a delinquency ratio of 0.14, followed by Cathay United Bank and E.Sun Commercial Bank, which recorded 5.3 million and 4.1 million cards and delinquency ratios of 0.14 and 0.24 respectively.
