EP128: Is your bank getting the most from its credit card business?

Many banks fail to fully realise the potential of their credit card businesses because they overlook fundamentals while chasing best practices or technology upgrades. Experience across mature and developing markets shows that poor execution—such as undifferentiated products, fragmented portfolios, weak risk–reward balance, and lack of coordinated strategy—undermines performance, even after heavy investments. Successful credit card businesses rest on five basics: strong organisational ownership and alignment; effective, incentivised sales across channels; relevant and differentiated products; balanced, analytics-driven risk management; and continuous customer lifecycle communication beyond acquisition. Common failures include weak strategic prioritisation, siloed functions, bland or misaligned offerings, overly conservative or disconnected risk policies, and neglect of post-issuance engagement. Banks that get these basics right create a stable foundation for innovation, profitability, customer retention and sustainable growth; those that don’t risk underperformance and wasted investment.