The Hindu : Business : Credit cards: a response

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Saturday, Nov 01, 2008
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Business

Business

Credit cards: a response

With reference to the article headlined ‘Credit cards the next big problem area?’ published in the Business Review section on October 13, SBI Card has sent in the following response:

We wish to put on record that the information presented in the story on the SBI Card business is false, incorrect and misleading. The story makes the following observations relating to SBI Card:

• The SBI Card joint venture is a fiasco;

• SBI Card customers receive unsolicited sales calls from third parties (banks), offering sundry financial products including credit cards;

• (such) information has its price;

• by implication, SBI Card received consideration for providing information of its large client base.

All these allegations are completely untrue. SBI Card is one of the most successful brands in the credit card industry. SBI Card is a separate business entity, promoted by State Bank of India and GE Money. It has been widely recognised and has earned several awards such as the Reader’s Digest Most Trusted Brand Gold Award 2008, and the CNBC Awaaz Consumer Awards 2007. It has been rated among the Top 2 in the BusinessWorld Customer Loyalty Survey 2007. It remains one of the leading performers in the credit card industry in a difficult environment.

The charge about SBI Card compromising its database in any manner, much less receiving any consideration is equally untrue and baseless.

Even if unwittingly, this story has presented SBI Card in poor light and maligned our reputation.

As a respected publication, we would request you to present the correct facts by issuing a clarification, inter alia, in the interest of your readers. We also request that, in future, the facts are verified before they are disseminated to a large readership such as yours.

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