Market added several brands this year
Though it is almost an year since Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) Group announced a joint venture with Japan's top finance houses to launch premium credit cards, the launch is still awaited.
In January this year, the MAF Group said it had tied up with JCB and Orix in Japan to sell cards in the UAE and thus become a major regional financial services player.
The blueprint for the joint venture explained that 150,000 cards would be issued in the first five years of operation. The officials said the company had plans to develop partnerships with financial institutions for JCB card issuing and merchant acquiring businesses.
The credit card is yet to take off. The Business Weekly failed to get any feedback to enquiries as to why the project is getting delayed. The attempt to contact Ahmed Bin Brek, CEO of MAF Ventures, also failed to materialise.
According to a report that appears on the MAF site, Brek had met representatives of JCB, Japan's leading credit card company and ORIX Corporation (ORIX), an integrated financial service provider in Japan, on January 26 to seal the agreement.,
However, since then, the UAE has witnessed a flood of credit cards with existing issuers launching new cards and new issuers entering the market. Almost all Islamic banks are now issuers of credit cards.
Moreover, Barclays Bank opened its retail operations with an array of retail products offerings. Barclays credit cards are free-for-life cards with several add-on benefits.
Last month, Dubai First, the first consumer finance company of Dubai Group, a member of Dubai Holding, in association with MasterCard Worldwide, launched the first-of-its kind 'Royale' MasterCard. The first diamond-embedded MasterCard credit card in the region, it claims to have set new standards in luxury credit cards through its unique services, benefits and design.
At the same time, two other companies, Asian Holdings, an affiliate of Singapore government's investment arm, Temasek, and GE Money, a joint venture between Al Futtaim Group and General Electric's consumer lending unit, have set up their shops. The status of their licence is not yet known.
By C.L. Jose
© The Business Weekly 2007
