ANZ charges credit-card market with low entry at platinum level

Hong Kong's increasingly crowded credit card market gets a new entrant today with the issue of a platinum card by ANZ.

To be called Pt100 (after the symbol for platinum), the card would come with the support of one of the biggest players in the Australian and New Zealand card markets and offer an annual percentage rate of interest (APR) of 21.9 per cent, said Iwan Notowidigdo, head of cards in Hong Kong for ANZ.

That represents a substantial discount on an APR of about 24-25 per cent charged by major issuers in Hong Kong.

In another move aimed at expanding the catchment for its card, ANZ will set an industry-beating entry level of a HK$35,000 monthly salary to qualify for the card, which will also come with a 56-day interest-free period and a 2 per cent cash rebate. These marketing lures would inevitably increase the risk of default on the card portfolio, said Denzil Lawson, head of international electronic banking for ANZ.

'Clearly, as a newcomer, you run risks that established players might have better credit information,' he said.

'But we have a lot of technology that underpins our credit processes and we run one of the best credit management systems in the market. So we are confident that we can handle anything from a risk perspective.'