Citibank NA (花旗銀行) yesterday launched a new credit card in cooperation with China Metal Products Group (CMP, 勤美集團) to target buyers at the group's soon-to-be-opened Park Lane (勤美天地) shopping mall in Taichung.
The Park Lane co-branded card offers incentives and benefits such as a six-fold increase in card bonus points, shopping discounts and three-hour free parking at the mall, which is holding its grand opening on Saturday.
Pradeep Pant, director of the bank’s card business, told a media briefing yesterday that the company hoped to contribute to raising the city’s living standards with the inauguration of the new mall
PHOTO: YANG YA-MIN, TAIPEI TIMES
The bank said that among the cities it covers, cardholders in Taichung had the highest frequency of card usage, with 88 percent having used them at least once over the past six months, said Rosy Tsai (蔡淑華), a senior vice president at the bank’s card marketing division.
She added that the bank’s Taichung cardholders ranked next only to Taipei in monthly average spending at NT$8,325 to NT$9,990 — almost three times higher than the industry average of spending per cardholder.
Tsai declined to give a growth estimate for the bank’s new co-brand card, but was upbeat about prospects given the region’s population of 6 million people and its exclusive partnership with CMP in Taichung, which plans to open another smaller mall nearby.
CMP spokesperson Ho Pei-fen (何佩芬) was also optimistic about potential business growth at Park Lane, which cost the firm NT$2.3 billion (US$75.4 million) to build.
“Our two major target customers are young people aged between 20 and 40 and rich, middle-aged women,” Ho said.
Park Lane is a 15-story building, with a floor space of 1,000 ping (3,300m²) per level. It has a four-story basement and parking for 1,100 cars.
CMP hopes to promote an eco-friendly environment through its green lane, which connects the National Museum of National Science and the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. Other than Eslite Bookstore (誠品書店), the mall will also feature name brands such as Level 6ix and X-LARGE.
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