Axis-Visa traveller card touches $1-bn in volume

Private lender Axis Bank's Travel Currency Card programme in a tie-up with Visa has become the first card in the country to touch $1-billion in volume.

Under the programme, business and leisure travellers load money in local currency of the destination they are travelling to and can use the pre-paid amount securely for meeting travel expenses.

Axis Bank's Executive Director S K Chakrabarti said: "(Our customers) have loaded in excess of $100-million onto their cards over April and May this year alone."

Even though credit cards are a favourite with international travellers, a business travellers' survey by Visa India found that 40 per cent of business travellers had used prepaid cards on trips, the company said in a press release, adding the demand for pre-paid cards was growing.