Dei Sets Up Card Centre In Mumbai

Outsourcing has become the buzzword for the banking sector as it looks at cost reduction and focuses on core business activities. With huge growth expectation in the card industry, DEI Ltd, the first third-party processor of cards in the country, has set up a card personalisation centre in Mumbai. This will help banks reduce costs up to 50 per cent in the personalisation of cards -- credit cards, debit cards and ATM cards (automated teller machine), by outsourcing the card personalisation from DEI.

Till date, banks have been undertaking the card personalisation on their own, and finding it difficult to administer the same as it is not their core business activity. Moreover, banks have to invest over Rs 4 crore in the necessary equipment, even as they may not necessarily have the required volumes to make it economically viable.

 

"The outsourcing model is coming of age now," pointed out DEI president and chief executive Deepak Soota. DEI has already undertaken personalisation of over fifty lakh cards in the last two years for banks such as HSBC, BNP Paribas, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and UTI Bank. However, as Visa and Master Card had not approved of its centre, it had to undertake the personalisation of credit cards in the banks' own premises. ATMs and non-bank loyalty cards on the other hand, were handled at the DEI's premises.

The centre in Andheri, Mumbai, has already received certification from Visa International, that states the centre to have the highest standards of security to ensure complete safety and confidentiality of sensitive bank data and card products. Master Card is in the process of certifying the centre and is expected to give its approval in a month's time.

DEI's centre has a capacity to personalise 45,000 cards in a day. Cards have become a volume game and one of the leading banks in the country proposes to issue twenty lakh debit cards in the next 12 months. This indicates a huge potential market for DEI, said company sources.

The card market is growing rapidly not only for credit cards but also for debit cards and ATM cards. The debit and ATM card market is expected to outstrip credit cards by the end of the fiscal. ATM/ debit cards are expected to increase from the present twenty lakh plus to well over 25 crore in the next five to seven years, as "we move towards a cashless society," said Soota. Gradually, ATM cards are expected to phase out and give way to debit cards cum ATM cards, he added.

"Our centre in Mumbai will undertake the entire process, right from the entry of the data of individuals to the couriering of cards to the end customers," said Soota. He also expected cooperative and regional banks to introduce debit cards by outsourcing their requirement to DEI.

It is imperative that the personalisation is undertaken properly, so as to ensure that the wrong account is not debited. DEI has the largest capacity in the country. The centre is equipped with fully imported machines from CIM in Italy. It has a team of fully-trained engineers to ensure industry standard uptimes and quick turnaround of personalised products.