Visa International sets up wholly-owned subsidiary
10 Sep 1999
Visa International, the US credit cards giant, is setting up a wholly-owned subsidiary in India. The unit will provide marketing support and back-up processing operations to its member banks in the country.
Sources said the decision to set up this project was taken as a part of the organisation's plan to provide greater thrust on its cards business in India.
The subsidiary will co-ordinate with its 23-member international and domestic banks issuing credit cards.
According to sources, the estimated cost of the project is unlikely to be very high as it will concentrate on marketing support venture.
Visa International, which provides credit cards in three categories - Classic, Executive and Gold, has plans to establish more alliances in India. It has issued a debit card called, Electron. However, it is yet to become popular.
Though Visa Intl entered Indian market after its arch rival MasterCard had entered, it has registered faster rate of growth than the latter. At present Visa has a card base of 1.1 million. MasterCard, on the other hand, has around 1.7 million.
In terms of billing, Visa has a larger share. Its total amounts to over Rs 3,500 crore. MasterCard, on the other hand, has around Rs 2,000 crore.
The launch of Visa's debit card, Electron, in
India figures high on the company's plans.
It wants have 8,000 Electronic data capture terminals (EDCs) in 15 cities and over 2,000 automatic teller machines as a roll-out plan. Sources said two of its member banks were keen on participating in the launch of Electron.