JCB eyes bigger share of RP credit card mart

MANILA, Philippines - JCB International, Japan’s leading credit card issuer, is eyeing a bigger share in the credit card market in the Philippines within the next few years.

Currently, its credit cards account for two percent of the total 6.5-million cards-in-force in the Philippines.

“We would like to grow and corner a 10-percent market share in the Philippines,” Judith G. Dumapay, JCB International country manager, said in a briefing yesterday.

JCB which has been in the Philippines since 1983, said it plans to increase the number of its partners and merchants.

JCB managing director Akihiko Shigemori added they are in talks with several bank and non-bank financial institutions for the prospect of co-branding alliances.

Shigemori said this would expand their satisfactory co-brand relationship with Bankard and Banco de Oro Unibank Inc. (BDO).

Also, the JCB officials said they are targeting an increase of 150,000 their merchant base in the Philippines this year, from their merchant base of a little over 100,000. They admitted that majority of the present merchants are Japanese firms or local firms with strong ties with Japanese establishments.

JCB’s merchant base includes Canon Phils., Robinsons Department Stores, Shiseido, Kanebo Cosmetics, Nagomi Japanese Restaurant, as well as popular destinations such as Hilton Cebu Resort and Spa, Plantation Bay and Maribago Bluewater, all in Cebu.

Shigemori also said they are holding informal talks with other card issuers on the prospects of institutionalizing contact-less credit cards.

“What we have to establish is the infrastructure for contact-less cards in the Philippines. That is the bigger issue,” the JCB managing director added.

He likewise confided that moving into a mobile banking environment will need the cooperation of the country’s leading telecommunications companies since there are huge technical issues on the microchips, mobile phones and the rest of the infrastructure.

Both contact-less card and mobile payments technology are popular in Japan, with JCB in the forefront of the convenient cash-less technology.

In Japan, JCB’s contact-less card business has 4.25 million consumers and 144,000 terminals of its merchant base.

Globally, JCB has over 60 million card members and in 13 million merchants in 190 countries.