Citibank Taiwan Ltd (台灣花旗) yesterday said it would focus on expanding its cash-back credit card business this year by upgrading its rewards program, after a survey indicated that cash-back cards rank as the most popular product among Taiwan’s cardholders.
The survey — conducted by market research firm ACNielsen on behalf of Citibank Taiwan — shows that respondents expressed more interest in cash-back credit cards than other types, with the average consumption of Taiwanese cash-back cardholders totaling NT$12,841 per month.
The survey shows that Taiwanese credit cardholders spent most at supermarkets, department stores and gas stations.
Citibank Taiwan was the first bank in Taiwan to introduce the cash-back credit card to local consumers about a decade ago. The bank said it is targeting this segment again this year by launching a rewards upgrade program for its Cash Back Platinum Card.
Under the new program, Citibank is set to offer a 1.5 percent cash-back rate for its platinum credit cardholders for transactions made at department stores, hypermarkets and gas stations.
“Citi’s products and services aim to meet customer needs, rather than changing cardholders’ spending habits,” Citibank Taiwan consumer banking business manager Yunny Lee (李芸), said at a news conference.
Citi has issued more than 15 million credit cards in the Asia-Pacific region, with the number of cash-back cards issued by Citibank Taiwan accounting for more than half of its total number in the region.
Lee refused to specify the exact number of cash-back credit cards the bank issued in the nation.
However, the strong performance has prompted Citibank Taiwan to extend its rewards program — which was only available for the bank’s cash-back Infinite cardholders
The survey also shows that the average number of credit cards held per salaried person in Taiwan dropped to 3.5 last year, down by 24 percent from 4.5 recorded 10 years ago.
However, total credit card spending in Taiwan rose to NT$2.1 trillion (US$66.56 billion) from NT$1.4 trillion, with average monthly spending on credit cards growing to NT$4,610, an increase of 77 percent from NT$2,603, according to the Financial Supervisory Commission's latest statistics.
This shows that Taiwanese cardholders appeared prudent when applying for a new card and tended to focus on fewer credit cards for shopping.
The survey of credit cardholders’ consumer behavior in Taiwan — conducted from October to December last year — used a sample of 1,046 interviewers aged between 25 and 55 and whose annual income was above NT$400,000.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is