Amex, ICBC launch corporate card in China http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=2006-11-03T073855Z_01_PEK280410_RTRUKOC_0_US-FINANCIAL-CHINA-AMEX.xml
Fri Nov 3, 2006
BEIJING (Reuters) - American Express Co. (AXP.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (1398.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) on Friday launched the first Amex-branded corporate card in China.
Gary Crittenden, Amex's chief financial officer, said in a statement that the ICBC Corporate American Express Card underlined the long-term commitment of the two financial firms to work together.
Amex has a 0.4 percent stake in ICBC, which went public last month, raising up to $21.9 billion for China's biggest bank in the world's largest initial public offering.
ICBC Vice-Chairman Yang Kaisheng said: "The ICBC-American Express partnership contributes to the development of the card industry in China and offers more choices to the market by expanding into the corporate sector."
ICBC was the country's largest card issuing lender, having put more than 180 million bank cards into the market, Yang told a news conference. Over 10 million of those were credit cards rather than debit cards.
The bank, which has 18,000 branches across China, had introduced best practices in terms of risk controls.
Yang said that ICBC had encountered few defaults in its credit card business.
The two firms already offer the ICBC American Express Card and the ICBC China Petrol American Express Card, which were launched in 2004 and 2006, respectively.
They said the dual-currency card, targeting large local firms and multinationals in China, would help them to manage and reduce corporate travel and entertainment spending.
Amex said its recent research showed Chinese businesses spent $7.4 billion a year on travel.
"There is no better time than now to launch the corporate card in China," Crittenden told the news conference.
"The growth of Chinese economy has contributed to a surge in business travel that includes business entertainment spending."
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