The Hindu Business Line : Tatas mull common credit card to push sales

Consumers planning to buy any of the products from the House of Tatas, be it Tata Salt or the yet to be launched Nano car, may soon get easy credit, as the Tatas plan to introduce a common credit-cum-loyalty card scheme.

The Tata Group is looking at the possibility of introducing a common credit card-based loyalty scheme across offerings of all its group companies. The Tatas may introduce the proposed credit card through Tata Capital, launched in June last as a whollyowned company of Tata Sons, sources close to the group said.

The sources said the Tata Group’s head office at Bombay House has been working on a proposal to bring all the Tata Group companies under a single fold to give credit for buying goods and services across its various companies, primarily in the retail sector. In fact, all the companies of the group have been asked to become a part of the credit-based loyalty programme.

Tata Capital was launched to offer capital market services — merchant banking, housing finance and private equity investments, assets and vehicle financing, retail finance and other-related areas.

A senior Tata Group official, on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Bombay House was mulling the introduction of its own credit card. However, the official was not willing to confirm whether the scheme would be operated through Tata Capital.

“We are still to decide whether Tata Capital should be involved with the common credit card across the group companies, as it is the initiative of the Tata’s retail companies such as Trent, which are more forthcoming with the idea of a common card,” the official said.

“We would be building upon the strong equity of the Tata Group to launch a common credit-based product. It would primarily be a common credit card at the group level for which there would be a tie-up with a bank,” the official said.

In fact, its retail companies such as Trent (Westside) and Infiniti Retail (Croma) have already got their loyalty programmes in place and now it is a matter of making the rest of the Tata companies join the group to launch credit-based loyalty programmes on a common platform.

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