**: CBN.
From "staking land" to fighting scale, to "deep ploughing" to stabilize the stock.
The once glorious "god cards" may be about to disappear from the rivers and lakes.
At the end of 2023, a number of banks successively issued announcements on the adjustment of credit card service rights and interests in 2024, adjusting the points rules and rights and interests. Compared with previous years, this year's adjustment is basically based on "reducing costs and increasing efficiency". On the one hand, the operating cost of credit cards can be reduced by increasing the threshold on the point side and reducing the category on the benefit sideOn the other hand, some credit cards have also optimized their rights and interests for the upgrade of precise customer groups.
Behind this, the operating logic of the bank credit card market has quietly changed, from "staking land" to "staking land" to stabilizing the stock. A person from the credit card department of a joint-stock bank told the first financial reporter that compared with the previous scale and as much as possible to broaden the rights and interests category to create a "god card", at present, most credit cards are more focused on accurate customer retention, and are more inclined to build a "less but fine" equity matrix.
Shen Card "Retire."
Generally speaking, the industry will refer to credit cards with many benefits, high overdraft limits, and cost-effective points as "god cards". However, recently, many credit card users have found that the rights and interests of the "God Card" are shrinking.
Li Huan (pseudonym), who works for a real estate company in Guangzhou, is one of them. He took a previously recognized "god card" in the industry, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Express American Platinum Card mileage redemption rights as an example, initially the card can be exchanged for airline miles with 12:1 points, but in the subsequent adjustments, the card began to gradually set a threshold, requiring cardholders to accumulate a certain amount of consumption within the time limit before they can redeem miles according to 12:1 points, and stipulate that the maximum limit is 20,000 miles. In December this year, the card announced that it would cancel the 20,000 miles redemption quota activity in 2024.
In addition, compared with the scope of rights and interests of the card in 2023 and 2024, in addition to mileage points, the rights and interests of birthday privileges, delay insurance, cultural centers, and parks have also "shrunk".
There are many cases similar to this card. According to incomplete statistics from the first financial reporter, since November, 9 bank credit cards, including China CITIC Bank, China Merchants Bank, Bank of Communications, Everbright Bank, and Bank of Shanghai, have adjusted their product rights and points rules, increased the threshold for point exchange, and narrowed the scope of product rights and interests.
From the perspective of points adjustment, following the intensive reduction of mileage redemption ratio by some credit cards at the beginning of this year, credit cards have recently begun to restrict the issuance of points. For example, Bank of Communications recently announced that it will stop issuing its Aeon co-branded credit cards from next year. Cardholders who use AEON Cards to spend at designated AEON stores will no longer be entitled to 2 times the accumulation of BOCOM Reward Points, and will participate in the BOCOM Credit Card Bonus Points Program rules.
Ping An Bank also updated its credit card points rules for 2024 in December. Compared with the points rules released in January 2023, the new version of the credit card points rules in 2024 has a smaller range of points for third-party payment institution channels. Except for special card types, Ping An Bank credit card bound to WeChat and Alipay channels will no longer accumulate points.
There are also credit cards that choose to adjust the scope of points use. For example, Minsheng Bank announced in November that the 2023 points exchange for car wash rights of many of its credit cards will be stopped on December 31, 2023, and follow-up activities will be notified on January 1, 2024.
It is worth noting that in addition to adjusting the points mechanism, some credit cards also directly adjust the allocation of benefits. For example, according to a recent announcement, the Postal Savings Bank of China (PSBC) has reduced the number of appointments for the Dingzhi Platinum Credit Card (Wealth Edition) expert account from 6 times to 2 times. The threshold for the issuance of benefits has also been further raised, from "activation distribution" to "150,000 yuan (excluding return transactions), issued once the next day, and the cumulative number of issuance of the validity period of rights and interests shall not exceed 2 times. In addition, the credit card also canceled the benefits of badminton, swimming, fitness, indoor tennis and other services.
Pay more attention to the accurate matching of rights and interests.
Behind the "shrinkage" of equity, the operating logic of bank credit cards has quietly changed, from "staking land" to "deep cultivation" to stabilize the stock. The reporter noticed that while the bank credit card "cut" the basic rights and interests on a large scale and adjusted the points exchange rules, some credit cards are also upgrading some product rights and interests.
Taking the above-mentioned Postal Savings Bank Dingzhi Platinum Credit Card (Wealth Edition) as an example, the card has increased the rights and interests of driving services while reducing some of the points and benefits. Minsheng Bank Credit Card also pointed out in a recent announcement that it will upgrade the VIP service rights and interests of an airport from January 12, 2024, and adjust the number of guests carrying pure points of diamond cards from 1 to 2 per day. At the same time, the expedited security check service will be reduced from 80 points to 50 points, and a number of airports that can provide VIP lounge services will be added.
An industry insider pointed out that in fact, for banks, equity adjustment is multi-dimensional. On the one hand, the "shrinkage" of rights and interests is the general trend. In the previous era of credit card staking and land racing, banks basically sought perfection and more in the layout of rights and interests, which also led to the birth of some "god cards". However, the operating cost of this model is high, and the customer actually uses many idle equity resources. On the other hand, in the environment of stock competition, the upgrading of rights and interests is also a new trend. For credit card institutions, the key to success is not how many types of popular rights and interests are superimposed, but whether they can match accurate rights and interests for high-quality customer groups and continuously optimize rights and interests according to the needs of customer groups.
In fact, as the market has changed, many former veteran credit card users have begun to change their mindset.
Li Huan told reporters that he has gradually become accustomed to the "shrinkage" of credit card rights, and has begun to take stock of his card holdings more rationally. "In the past few months, I have been doing the 'disconnection' of credit cards, and I have cancelled the credit cards that have been idle and rarely used in the past few years. He said.
Credit cards have entered a more refined management stage.
Recently, what is the reason behind the frequent adjustment of credit card rights and interests by many banks?Dong Ximiao, chief researcher of Zhaolian Financial and researcher of the Institute of Financial Research of Fudan University, told the first financial reporter that from the bank level, in recent years, due to continuous concessions to the real economy and other reasons, bank interest rate spreads have narrowed significantly, and there is an urgent need to reduce costs. The recent reduction of deposit interest rates and credit card rights are also ways for banks to "control" costs, which is conducive to alleviating the pressure on interest margins.
In fact, since the beginning of this year, banks' net interest margins have continued to come under pressure. According to the data of the State Administration of Financial Supervision and Administration, in the first three quarters of 2023, the net interest margin of commercial banks was 173%, down 001 percentage point.
At the same time as interest rate spreads are falling, there are certain signs of rising credit card loan risks, which has strengthened banks' capital "anxiety". According to the Huatai Research Report, at the end of the first half of 2023, the credit card non-performing loan ratio of the sample listed banks increased by 19bp from the end of 2022 to 2.22%。Since 2022, the non-performing ratio of various types of retail loans has shown a marginal upward trend, and the asset quality of credit cards and consumer loans of some long-tail customers may be under certain pressure.
On the other hand, the adjustment of equity allocation is also related to changes in the credit card market. Dong Ximiao told the first financial reporter that since the announcement of the new credit card regulations in July last year, the rapid development of credit cards has come to an end, which has also forced institutions to adjust the allocation of rights and interests, marketing models, and enter the stage of refined management.
The credit card industry has entered the era of stock, and the growth rate of many indicators such as card issuance volume and transaction scale has generally slowed down. Wang Pengbo, chief analyst of the financial industry at Broadcom Consulting, told the first financial reporter that in order to reduce costs and increase efficiency, more and more credit card departments choose to reduce their rights. Secondly, it is also to avoid becoming the target of some running platforms and professional "wool" groups.
Many data can also confirm that the credit card market has entered the era of stock. According to the "Overall Operation of the Payment System in the Second Quarter of 2023" released by the central bank, as of the end of the second quarter of 2023, the number of credit cards and credit cards in use was 78.6 billion, a decrease of 21 million from the same period last year.
From a long-term perspective, the "2022 2026 China Credit Card Industry Development Prospect and Investment Risk Analysis Report" released by the China Research Institute of Puhua Industry Research Institute shows that from 2016 to 2021, the total number of credit cards and debit cards in China increased from 46.5 billion to 800 million, but the growth rate has increased from 26 at its peak35% down to 285%。
There is limited potential to drive growth in the credit card market by relying on new card issuance. A credit card person from South China Co., Ltd. pointed out that under the stock competition model, the rights and interests do not pursue "more and all", but more for a certain segment of the customer group to do "less but fine" rights. At the same time, it continuously activates customer users through more vertical activities and improves the efficiency of credit card use.
Looking forward to the market outlook, many people in the industry believe that it is difficult to reproduce the previous era of "God Card" stars, and institutions will face new challenges.
It is an indisputable fact that the cost of user acquisition is continuous, and under the premise that fierce market competition still exists, equity activities are still one of the best means to acquire customers. Wang Pengbo told the first financial reporter that a "balance point" may eventually be formed after that, and credit cards can not only ensure profits, but also increase user stickiness.
Dong Ximiao suggested that when adjusting credit card rights, institutions also need to actively optimize services, inform customers of adjustment trends in a timely manner and strive for customer understanding, so as to gain the initiative of transformation in the current fierce market competition. (Intern Zou Zheng also contributed to this article).