Turkish-based Garanti Bank targets aggressive growth on the credit card segment in a bid to gain ground on the retail market.
Last autumn, the bank launched an electronic chip credit card as part of a strong package, which also includes an easy-to-use bonus system.
"So far, we've sold 6,000 cards, and sales have gained momentum lately. We hope we'll reach 100,000 cards by yearend," said Berat Icinsel, general manager of Garanti Bank Romania. However, he believes this is an ambitious target as, according to his own data, the domestic credit card market stands at around one million units.
Last year, the bank embarked upon a retail expansion campaign with an interest rate promotion for loans, followed by the credit card launch.
At present, the Turkish bank is carrying out a campaign that includes a grace period for loans, being one of the few players to promote loan benefits, while most banks have focused on savings products.
Garanti wants to triple its assets in 2008 to a total of 600m euros. From this total, loans granted to customers are expected to account for 460m euros. In the first quarter, the bank boosted its assets by 50% to 327m euros.
Despite having been present on the domestic market for several years, Garanti has kept a low profile and has mainly focused on corporate customers.
It was as late as last autumn that the bank reviewed its strategy, and began to target aggressive expansion on the retail segment.
At present, retail accounts for 20% in the bank's turnover, in addition to 10% generated by the SME business. These shares should climb to 30% for retail and 15% for SMEs by yearend. "In 2009 and 2010 there will be much bigger increases for retail," forecasts Berat Icinsel.
He says the strategy related to the group's activities on the Romanian market has not been finalised as the group is waiting for some approvals from the Romanian regulating authorities.
Berat Icinsel says the group will focus on strengthening the market positions of the companies it owns. "We are not considering entering other business segments at present". Garanti plans to gain a position among the top ten players in the system by 2011.
In 2007, Garanti operated extensive investments to expand its territorial network, with another 15 branches to be added to the current 38 by yearend.
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