SBI Cards to offer credit cards against Rs25,000 FD of any bank: report

SBI Cards, the credit card arm of State Bank of India, is planning to come out with credit cards for anyone who has a Rs25,000 fixed deposit in any bank, a report in The Times of India said.

The credit card will not have any charges and will not demand proof of income or credit history for issuance, the report quoted  Vijay Jasuja, CEO of SBI Cards, as saying.

SBI Cards also plans to issue credit cards to students of top 100 educational institutions in India without any income proof, the report said.

SBI Cards will keep the cost of the card low as issuance will be against eKYC, Jasuja was quoted as saying, adding that the credit card issue will initially be restricted to bank's customers and will be expanded to include customers of other banks.

SBI Cards will also expand its services for the masses with parent SBI planning to add five lakh new swipe machines.

SBI is planning to install around five lakh additional card swipe machines. Besides installing new machines at shops, the bank also plans to launch an app that will enable offline card payments via QR code.

"Most of the merchants in small cities do not have PoS (swipe) machines. They can accept payments through QR codes. The credit card will reside in the mobile and by scanning the code, the cardholder can make the payment," Jasuja was quoted as saying.

The credit card against FD will be launched in January while the student card will be launched in December itself, the official was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, SBI Cards, the joint venture between SBI and GE Capital, is in the process of getting new private equity partners with GE deciding to exit the joint venture.