《TAIPEI TIMES》 Taiwan Cooperative Bank tries to draw younger consumers with new credit card

By Crystal Hsu / Staff reporter

State-run Taiwan Cooperative Bank （合庫銀行） has issued a new credit card featuring popular illustrated characters in a bid to to grab young customers.

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The new credit card displays characters from Japanese illustrator Kanahei’s Small Animals series, which came out on top during the Line Sticker’s 2015 World Campaign with more than 10 million downloads. The stickers are especially popular in Taiwan, Thailand and Japan.

The bank, while having the most branches in Taiwan, could improve, particularly in winning over young customers, Taiwan Cooperative Financial Holding Co （合庫金控） chairman Lei Chung-dar （雷仲達） said on the sidelines of an event to launch the credit card on Tuesday last week.

The bank has 485,000 cards in circulation, lagging behind state-run and private-sector rivals that tout figures of more than 1 million, Lei said.

The new credit card will hopefully help the bank reach its target of lowering the average age of its credit clients from 45 to 35 and increasing its number of credit card members to 500,000 by the end of the year, he said.

Toward that end, the bank has filmed a TV commercial featuring celebrity table tennis player Chiang Hung-chieh （江宏傑）, Lei added.

However, the new credit card might not help raise per-card spending, which averages NT$9,700 （US$315.90） a month, with a 62 percent utilization rate, Lei said.

A bigger selection of cards helps lift overall credit card transactions, as different cards appeal to different clients, he said, adding that the bank has a co-branded credit card with buffet restaurant operator Hi-Lai Foods Co Ltd （漢來美食） and another card featuring the goddess Matsu.

The bank’s credit card transactions hit NT$20 billion in the first six months of this year, a 12.79 percent increase from the same period last year, which accounted for just 1.39 percent of the nation’s overall credit card spending of NT$1.44 trillion.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES