American Express Banking Corp India has told the Reserve Bank of India that it will comply with data localization standards. The RBI in April this year banned American Express from bringing new domestic customers onto their card networks from May 1 for violating data storage standards.
Manoj Adlakha, SVP and CEO, American Express Banking Corp India said Activity area that the bank continues to believe that India is a strategic market for the company. “We are working closely with the RBI. We are still very much aware that if there was a law of the land, we would be fully compliant, â€said Adlakha.
Meanwhile, the company is working to expand its presence in the country with larger customer engagements and more merchant partnerships.
“Right now, the main focus is to ensure that customers spend more than what a typical customer spends in the industry. We are focused on increasing spend per customer and making sure they stay engaged with us, â€he said.
Call on millennials
He explained that it’s a myth that American Express cards only attract high net worth people, and they also attract millennials. “In 2019, about 40 to 45% of our card acquisitions were millennials. We have a product line focused on different target segments, â€he said.
The company has also focused heavily on adding new merchants, especially smaller merchants and daily spend categories on its networks. There are nearly 15 lakh merchant partners in India. The coverage of local traders has increased tenfold over the past five years, with 5.5 lakh of new traders added in the past two years.
Commenting on spending trends after the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, Adlakha said it was still very early days. He expects spending, however, to pick up very quickly – as seen in the three months of December 2020 and January and February 2021 – if there is no third wave. The bank has not experienced any stress in terms of repayments.
“Sectors where credit card spending has increased dramatically are groceries, insurance premiums, utility bills, health and hygiene, savings, even OTT and entertainment,” a- he said, adding that in the online spending category, there has been adoption of education, online courses, health and wellness, online retail and catering, or food ordering.
