Amex To Introduce Personal Fin Services

American Express Bank (Amex) will shortly launch a personal financial services scheme in India targeted at the affluent market.

Speaking at a meeting organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry yesterday, the American Express Bank Worldwide chairman and CEO John A Ward said the head of this division has already been hired and that they are inevsting a "substantial' amount in this division.

He said they will be spending a fair amount on advertising, solicitising for the new services.

Amex senior director P Madhu Sudhan said the modalities are being discussed and the total budget is slated to be concretised soon.

 

"The services will be aimed at clients who have no strong feelings about taking the services of a foreign bank", said Ward. Amex aims at investment and credit products and mutual funds, for India.

He also said that in the coming years, they would be more focussed on direct banking, which would entail the use of direct mail, telephone and personal computers, and have a younger and PC-literate customer base.

Ward commented that India faced tough competition from south east Asian exporters as their currencies of late, have undergone a tremendous amount of devaluation. For this, the country should step up the pace of liberalizatio,he said.

"India needs a revolution of gradual incremental gains", he added.

During the meeting, the Indian Chamber president Aditya Lodha expressed certain anxieties of the Indian businessment such as whether India needs more controls or reforms in the financial sector, what roles must governments and central banks play, if any to stop volatile slides of currencies.