KUALA LUMPUR (March 4): RHB Bank is expecting to issue 78,000 new corporate charge and credit cards, which target corporate clients and small and medium enterprises, by 2022.

RHB acting group retail banking head Nazri Othman said the cards' benefits will be particularly beneficial for SMEs, particularly for expense management. The new cards also have Syariah-compliant variants.

“The challenges are in terms of what we offer to our customers. [But] by looking at the benefits of what they (the customers) are going to get, we are pretty sure that take-up will be what we expect it to be,” Nazri said when asked on the challenges the bank foresees in achieving the targeted issuance of new cards. He was speaking to reporters at the launch of the new card offerings today.

The banking group now has about 490,000 cards in circulation, translating into 4.6% of the total cards circulated in Malaysia, Nazri shared.

On how the bank would support SMEs in the face of an environment with low business confidence, RHB's group head of business and transaction banking Jeffrey Ng said the bank has been listening to SMEs, particularly with regards to financing.

“SMEs have been saying that they are facing some cash flow constraints, [so] we feel this card is very timely because it allows them to manage their cash flows better,” Ng said.

He also said the group has been pushing to offer more to SMEs, and that this has helped its 2018 SME customer base grow by 6%.

The group would continue with its strategy to leverage on government guarantees to further its SME engagement, he added.

RHB Islamic Bank managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) Datuk Adissadikin Ali, meanwhile, said the banking group is prepared for the further growth of the Malaysian Islamic finance industry through the Government's Halal Industry Master Plan.

“We are not talking about halal as a product, [but] the ecosystem. This means any halal company or halal-compliant company here will not only show they have halal-only products, but even their financing will be halal,” said Adissadikin.

RHB shares were up 6 sen to RM5.75 on market close — with 6.78 million shares traded — giving the group a market capitalisation of RM23.06 billion.