Tag: festive season

Banks step up credit card sales, offers in festive season as BNPL threatens, BFSI News, ET BFSI

Banking & Finance

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With the Covid pandemic weakening and consumer confidence rising, banks are betting on credit card spends this festive season. Lenders have launched a slew of new credit cards and offers to solidify their positions and grab a bigger share of the market.

The credit card push comes at a time when buy now-pay later (BNPL) products have become popular with consumers. BNPL essentially offers around 15 days of interest-free funds to small borrowers and are seen as competitors of credit cards.

SBI offering

Banks step up credit card sales, offers in festive season as BNPL threatens

SBI Card is luring consumers with 10% cashback up to Rs 10,000 across mobiles, consumer durables, laptops, kitchen appliances, home décor & furnishing, and fashion & lifestyle purchases, done at leading domestic e-commerce shopping sites. The offerings are not restricted to just one or two e-commerce portals

However, the offer will not be applicable on online spending in some categories such as insurance, travel, wallet, jewellery, education, healthcare, and utility merchants.

HDFC Bank

Banks step up credit card sales, offers in festive season as BNPL threatens

HDFC Bank and digital payments firm Paytm will launch a range of credit cards powered by Visa this month. The partnership aims to provide one of the widest range of offerings across customer segments, with special focus on millennials, business owners and merchants. Under the partnership announced in August, the two will build comprehensive solutions across payments gateway, point of sale machines, and credit products.

The cards announced today will be customised to meet the distinct needs of retail customers, from new-to-credit users to affluent users and offer rewards and cashback for users. The new cards offering will also facilitate small business owners.

Federal Bank cards

Banks step up credit card sales, offers in festive season as BNPL threatens

Kochi-based private lender Federal Bank entered the credit card business in September in association with card network Visa. The bank has partnered with National Payments Corp of India to launch ‘Federal Bank RuPay Signet Contactless Credit Card,’ according to a press release.

The card’s annual percentage rate starts from 5.88% per annum. Cardholders will gain access to a wide range of offers and deals across categories including travel, food, among others, the bank said. The card is currently being offered to existing customers of Federal Bank.

According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the total number of credit cards stood at 63.4 million at the end of July.



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HSBC, Bajaj Housing Finance reduce home loan rates

Banking & Finance

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HSBC India on Friday announced that it has reduced its home loan interest rates by 10 basis points from 6.55 per cent to 6.45 per cent per annum.

“This offer will be applicable for Balance Transfer Home Loans,” it said, adding that the special rate will be effective from October 1 to December 31. It is available across all loan amounts, and the bank has also waived off the processing fee for these loans, it added.

Also see: HSBC simplifies cross-border transactions

Bajaj Housing Finance also announced it has revised its home loan interest rate to 6.7 per cent per annum from 6.75 per cent per annum for salaried and professional applicants.

“Eligible applicants can transfer the balance amount on their home loan to Bajaj Housing Finance and avail the reduced interest rate,” it said.

The Home Loan Balance Transfer product comes with a top-up loan facility, where an applicant has the option to avail a sizeable top-up loan of ₹1 crore or more depending on eligibility.

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HDFC announces special offer for festival season

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Mortgage financier HDFC on Tuesday unveiled its special limited period offer for the upcoming festival season. Under this special offer, customers can avail HDFC Home Loans starting at 6.7 per cent per annum effective September 20.

Last week, SBI as part of festival bonanza offered a concessional home loan rate of 6.70 per cent under its festive offer. This was followed by other lenders like Punjab National Bank and Bank of Baroda.

“Housing is much more affordable today than it ever was. In the last couple of years, property prices have more or less remained the same in major pockets across the country while income levels have gone up. Record low interest rates, subsidies under PMAY and the tax benefits have also helped,” said Renu Sud Karnad, Managing Director, HDFC Ltd. Record low interest rates, subsidies under PMAY and the tax benefits have also helped, she said.

Low interest rates

Under the festive scheme, HDFC said, “Customers can avail HDFC Home Loan starting at 6.70 per cent per annum effective September 20, 2021. This offer will be applicable to all new loan applications irrespective of the loan amount or employment category,” HDFC said in a statement.

The special festive offer at 6.70 per cent is for all loan slabs and for all customers with credit score of 800 and above.

Before this special offer, the rate for salaried customers for loan above ₹75 lakh and credit score of 800 and above was 7.15 per cent and for self employed was 7.30 per cent. Hence, effective cut for these customers could be up to 45 bps for salaried and up to 60 bps for self employed.

This is a close ended scheme and will be valid till October 31, 2021.

Also see: HDFC Bank, Paytm set to launch co-branded credit cards

Other lenders including State Bank of India and Kotak Mahindra Bank have also recently announced cut in home loan rates for the festive season.

SBI is offering credit score linked home loans at 6.7 per cent, irrespective of the loan amount. Similarly, Kotak Mahindra Bank has reduced home loan rates to 6.5 per cent for a limited period.

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Credit card war hots up ahead of festive season; cos announce a slew of tie-ups, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Consumers are set to get a flurry of new credit card offers as banks are stepping up on customer acquisitions. Banks are gearing up to grab a bigger share of the market which is set to grow as the economy opens up.

New card additions were the highest for ICICI at 655,000 during this fiscal while added 198,000 cards being the highest in the past 16 months.

HDFC Bank

HDFC Bank, on which RBI recently lifted a ban of issuing new credit cards, has announced a tie-up with leading payments company Paytm to start selling co-branded plastics before the onset of the festive season. The credit cards will be powered by Visa and will include offerings targeted at millennials, business owners and merchants, an official statement said.

Paytm has a reach of over 330 million consumers and 21 million merchants, while HDFC Bank has over 5 million debit, credit and prepaid cards, and serves 2 million merchants through its offerings.

HDFC Bank, the largest private-sector bank which also leads the credit card segment, was banned from issuing new credit cards for over eight months as a penalty for frequent outages. After the lifting of the ban, it outlined aggressive plans to regain lost market share in up to a year.

The bank had said that it will focus on distribution partnerships to achieve its target, under which it envisages ramping up new credit card sales to 5 lakh a month by end of the fiscal from 3 lakh in November 2021.

HDFC Bank and Paytm had last month announced a tie-up on the payments side. Paytm already has a tie-up with foreign lender Citi under which co-branded credit cards are issued. Citi is looking to exit retail banking activities in the country.

The launch of the HDFC Bank-Paytm co-branded cards is slated for next month, ahead of the festive season which typically sees a spurt in spends, the statement said, adding a full suite of products will be available by December.

Yes Bank ties up with Visa

Yes Bank has tied up with Visa to issue credit cards to its customers on the payment platform, which includes a suite of nine credit card variants. The Yes Bank card issuances were hit after RBI had banned Mastercard from issuing cards.

“The transition has been achieved within a record time of less than 60 days, ensuring ease for customers across segments,” the bank said.

Yes Bank and RBL Bank were hit the most by the Mastercard ban as their entire card network was on it. RBL Bank had announced a tie-up with Visa the day after the curbs on Mastercard were announced and resumed issuing cards from September 15. Yes Bank’s Visa credit cards, announced today, will service all segments–consumer cards, business cards, and corporate cards across YES First, YES Premia and YES Prosperity.

AU Small Finance Bank

AU Small Finance Bank (SFB) has issued over 40,000 credit cards since its launch a few months back, and more than half of them are first time users. The Jaipur based lender said it is the first SFB to enter semi-urban and rural areas with its own credit cards. It also offers a special Altura plus credit card to empower women to experience a limitless living.

In future, the bank is also working on bringing out its limited-edition cards, featuring the bank’s brand ambassadors Aamir Khan and Kiara Advani.

“The forthcoming festive season will lend further support to the picked-up momentum in the spends and new customers sourcing. However, a possible Covid 3.0 remains a key risk. We continue to believe that Citi Bank’s exit from the credit cards business along with the domestic corporate loan recovery cycle yet to pick up, provides good growth opportunities for the credit cards business, supported by improving macro-conditions,’ Axis Securities said in a note.



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Now, SBI cuts home loan rate to 6.7%

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The State Bank of India (SBI) has decided to offer home loans to prospective home loan customers, including those opting for balance transfer, at interest rates starting from 6.70 per cent against 6.80 per cent earlier, waive processing fees and occupation-linked interest premium, as part of its festive offer.

India’s largest bank, in a statement, said it is offering credit score linked home loans at 6.70 per cent, irrespective of the loan amount. Earlier a borrower availing a loan greater than ₹75 lakh, had to pay an interest rate of 7.15 per cent.

“With the introduction of the festive offers, a borrower can now avail home loan for any amount at a rate as low as 6.70 per cent.

“The offer results in a saving of 45 basis points (bps) which translates into a huge interest saving of more than ₹8 lakh for a ₹75 lakh loan with a 30 year tenure,” the bank said.

Salaried vs non-salaried

Further, SBI has removed the distinction between a salaried and a non-salaried borrower.

“Now, there is no occupation-linked interest premium being charged to prospective home loan borrowers. This would lead to a further interest saving of 15 bps to non-salaried borrowers,” SBI said.

Earlier, the rate of interest applicable for a non-salaried borrower was 15 bps higher than the interest rate applicable to a salaried borrower.

This move by SBI comes in the backdrop of Kotak Mahindra Bank’s September 9th announcement that it has reduced its home loan interest rates by 15 bps from 6.65 per cent to 6.50 per cent. The private sector bank said its special rate is a limited period festive season offer beginning 10th September and ending 8th November 2021.

Also see: Cash credit for agri sector should be brought on par with other biz: SBI Ecowrap

SBI has also waived processing fees and offers interest concession based on the credit score of the borrower.

Challa Sreenivasulu Setty, Managing Director (Retail & Digital Banking), SBI said, “Generally, concessional interest rates are applicable for a loan up to a certain limit and are also linked to the profession of the borrower.

“This time, we have made the offers more inclusive and the offers are available to all segments of borrowers irrespective of the loan amount and the profession of the borrower.”

Setty observed that zero processing fees and concessional interest rates in the festive season will make homeownership more affordable.

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Pine Labs partners with OneCard

Banking & Finance

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Pine Labs, a merchant commerce platform, has partnered with OneCard, India’s first exclusive mobile-based credit card, to extend its equated monthly instalments (EMI) offering to all OneCard credit card holders.

Digital transactions grew 80% in last 250 days: Razorpay report

With this collaboration OneCard credit card holders will now be able to avail interest-free EMI on their credit card for mid and high-value purchases made at Pine Labs PoS terminals across the country.

Festive season ahead

Commenting on the partnership, Kush Mehra, Chief Business Officer, Pine Labs, said in a statement, “With the festive season in India fast approaching, we are delighted to now expand the scope of our EMI proposition to OneCard customers. This association with FPL will add more shoppers to the thriving interest-free EMI ecosystem we have on Pine Labs PoS terminals and give more customers the option to convert their regular purchases into interest-free EMIs in a matter of seconds.”

South Indian Bank launches SIB-OneCard credit card

Vibhav Hathi, Co-founder & CMO, OneCard, said, “With this partnership our customers can avail enhanced flexibility while managing their cash flow through the choice of EMI payments. Our partnership just ahead of the festive season will enable customers to enjoy hassle-free shopping through smart, easy and affordable instalments with just a swipe of their card.”

Targeting the tech-savvy

With this partnership, Pine Labs is aiming to target the tech-savvy population serviced by OneCard, while OneCard aims to solve the problem of short-term liquidity without burdening its customers with high interest fees.

The EMI integration is being rolled out at Pine Labs’ merchant partner outlets pan India, whereby all OneCard credit card holders will now be able to avail the EMI offering across more than 2.7 lakh Pine Labs PoS terminals in the country.

Pine Labs is expanding its instalment payment offering to international markets and recently partnered with Atome in Malaysia to enable affordable shopping options for customers in that region.

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Kotak Mahindra Bank cuts home loan interest rate to 6.5% for 60 days, BFSI News, ET BFSI

Banking & Finance

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Kotak Mahindra Bank has cut its interest rate on home loans to 6.50% from 6.65% per annum, starting from Friday till November 8.

The bank is offering these rates in view of the upcoming festive period. These rates will be prevalent for both fresh home loans and balance transfers, and will be available across all loans amounts and is linked to a borrower’s credit profile.

The bank’s home loan rates are linked to an external benchmark, that is the Reserve Bank of India’s policy repo rate of 4%

With Kotak Digi Home Loans, home loan applicants can apply and receive an instant in-principle sanction letter, loan amount eligibility, tenure of the loan, interest rate and EMI in an end-to-end contactless process.
Following are the features of the home loans:
> Starting at 6.50% per annum, on fresh home loans and balance transfer loans
> Attractive rates for both salaried and self-employed customer segments
> Instant in-principle sanction with Kotak Digi Home LoansConsumers can also apply through Kotak’s bank branches across India. The bank’s home loans are available across over 100 cities and towns in India. Existing Kotak customers can also apply through the Kotak mobile banking app or net banking.



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Bank of Maharashtra launches Retail Bonanza-Monsoon Dhamaka

Banking & Finance

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Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) has waived processing fees on its gold, housing and car loans till 30 September, 2021, under its ‘Retail Bonanza-Monsoon Dhamaka’ offer.

The Pune-heaquartered public sector bank said in a statement that it is offering home loans and car loans at interest rates starting from 6.90 per cent and 7.30 per cent respectively.

Retail loans have features such as two free Equated Monthly Installments on regular repayment of home loans, loan facility up to 90 per cent in the case of home and car loans, and no pre-payment / pre-closure / part payment charges, the statement added.

The bank also revamped its gold loan scheme, whereby customers can get loans up to ₹20 lakh at 7.10 per cent interest. Further, there is no processing fee for gold loans up to ₹1 lakh.

BoM said it has set up ‘Gold Loan Points’, dedicated counters in select branches, to facilitate gold loans within 15 minutes.

Hemant Tamta, Executive Director, Bank of Maharashtra, said customers will benefit from lower rates and waiver of processing fee under the Dhamaka offer this festive season.

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