CITICORP <CCI> RULES OUT CREDIT CARD PRICE WAR
American Express Co's <AXP> recent
launch of a new "OPTIMA" credit card, with relatively low
interest rates and fees, will increase competition with bank
credit-card issuers but will not lead to a pricing war, a
senior Citicorp offical said.
    "Over the next two to three years, a very interesting
marketing battle will be fought ... competition will not be on
price but on product features," Pei-yuan Chia, head of the U.S.
card products group, told a banking analysts meeting.
    Citicorp is the leading U.S. bank credit-card issuer, with
some 10 mln accounts and an 11 pct market share.
    Chia said that Citicorp would focus its credit card
marketing efforts on acceptance, noting that Visa and
Mastercard currently enjoy a two-to-one advantage over American
Express in terms of worldwide acceptance.
    He also doubted the popularity of American Express' plan to
link interest charges on the new OPTIMA card to the bank prime
lending rate. "The consumer likes to have a fixed rate
instrument," he said.
    Richard Braddock, head of the whole individual banking
division, added that when there is increased competition, "it
is not the big people who get crunched but the small ones."
 Reuter
