PING An Insurance (Group) Co plans to at least double its credit card circulation this year and build up the wealth-management team of its banking unit, senior managers said.
Shenzhen Ping An Bank, the group's banking arm, is a small latecomer in a competitive market.
Ping An has nearly 300,000 credit cards in circulation in Shenzhen and Shanghai, and will expand the business to Fuzhou as the next step.
The credit card business is one of the key businesses the bank wants to expand, Dominic Leung, Ping An's chief insurance officer, said in Shanghai.
The bank has teamed up with convenience stores as credit card payment outlets to make up for its limited network - an innovation in the industry. Wealth management is another focus for the Shenzhen-based bank.
This week, it opened its first wealth management center in Shanghai to offer tailor-made services for clients with financial assets of more than 400,000 yuan (US$55,866).
Chen Wei, the executive vice president and director of the bank's board, said less than 10 percent of its current clients are qualified to be the high-end group.
The bank is also leveraging the insurance strength of parent Ping An Insurance (Group) Co, the country's second-biggest insurer, to expand its banking business.
The bank packages free home property insurance with its credit card and some of its wealth management products to woo clients. Ping An Group has set up a group-wide VIP center to serve high-end clients under its banking, life insurance, property and casualty insurance, securities and trust subsidiaries.
Ping An Bank plans to add five or six outlets in Shanghai by the end of 2008, the bank's Shanghai Branch Manager Wang Shijun said earlier.
Ping An gained regulatory approval in June to buy Ping An Bank and merge it with Shenzhen Commercial Bank to form Shenzhen Ping An Bank.