News - Low Rate Credit Card
Unibanco Looks Into Credit-Card Market in Mexico
Wed, Aug 20, 2008
Aug. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Uniao de Bancos Brasileiros SA, Brazil's third-largest non-state bank by assets, is seeking to expand its credit card business by offering services in Mexico, a market that has almost doubled in three years.
Unibanco, based in Sao Paulo, opened an office in Mexico City about two months ago to conduct market research, corporate vice president Geraldo Travaglia said in an interview.
``We need first to understand the market and check if it combines the conditions for us to be in that market with our business model,'' Travaglia said in a phone interview. ``The natural choice was Mexico'' because it's similar to Brazil, he said.
Unibanco will try to build on its success in Paraguay, where Travaglia said the bank controls half the market after 13 years. Mexican credit card purchases reached 91 billion pesos ($8.9 billion) in the first quarter of this year, 12 percent higher than the same period in 2007 and almost doubled the 46 billion pesos in the first quarter of 2005, according to data from Mexico's central bank.
Unibanco started operations in Paraguay in 1995, when it inherited Interbanco SA with the acquisition of Banco Nacional SA. Unibanco is ascertaining whether it's possible to use the same business model it has in Brazil in Mexico in terms of marketing, charging and processing payments, Travaglia said.
The Brazilian and Mexican markets are more competitive than that in Paraguay, said Travaglia. The biggest providers of credit cards in Mexico include Grupo Financiero BBVA Bancomer, Banco Nacional de Mexico SA and Banco Mercantil del Norte SA, according to The Nilson Report, an industry newsletter based in Carpinteria, California.
Unibanco shares fell 6 centavos to 18.85 reais at 5:10 p.m. in Sao Paulo trading. The bank has fallen 18 percent this year, compared with a 15 percent decline at the benchmark Bovespa stock index.
Source : http://www.bloomberg.com/