The first Shariah-compliant business credit card in Asia Pacific, Bank Islam Visa Infinite Business Card-i, was launched by Visa International (Asia-Pacific) LLC and Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The credit card allows the cardholder to get instant claim on value-added tax on their spending overseas, said Ng Kong Boon, Malaysia\u2019s country manager at Visa International.<\/p>\n
The main target market of the business card is small and medium enterprises, he said, and he expects good market acceptance as one-third of Malaysia\u2019s gross domestic product comes from this segment.<\/p>\n
The Bank Islam Visa Infinite Business Card-i comes with no compounding finance charges, a 20-day profit-charge-free period, lifetime annual fee waiver, as well as financing limit up to RM250,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Business Card-i enables businesses to separate and consolidate business-related spending in one card and the detailed monthly statement eases the tracking of this spending,\u201d said Datuk Seri Zukri Samat, managing director of Bank Islam.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe the multiple benefits of this product make it especially attractive in the current environment, where businesses demand greater convenience to support their operations,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The new credit card will increase the bank\u2019s portfolio and product mix. He added that Bank Islam hopes to reach 10% of its current corporate and commercial customer base of about 200,000 clients in the first three years after the introduction of the card.<\/p>\n
In the period of June 1, 2015 to May 31, 2016, Visa saw credit card transactions in Malaysia amounting to US$20 billion, said Ng.<\/p>\n
\u201cOut of the total transaction value, about 10% was business credit, and 30% of this US$2 billion was related to online and cross-border transactions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Bank Islam, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BIMB Holdings Bhd, has contributed 5% of BIMB\u2019s total revenue from its credit card segment, said the bank\u2019s deputy chief executive officer Khairul Kamarudin.<\/p>\n
The management intends to double the figure in the next three years, he added. Currently, BIMB has about 150,000 active credit cardholders and two million debit cardholders.<\/p>\n
As at end-June this year, credit cards represented 1.2% (RM444.89 million) of BIMB\u2019s total financing portfolio of RM37.03 billion.<\/p>\n
BIMB closed unchanged at RM4.02 yesterday, valuing the banking group at RM6.39 billion.<\/p>\n