Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (台北富邦銀行), the flagship retail banking arm of Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), is to introduce a co-branded credit card with warehouse club Costco Wholesale Taiwan Ltd (台灣好市多) on Feb. 1.
A media invitation for this event this week confirmed that Taipei Fubon Bank has taken over rival Cathay United Bank’s (國泰世華銀行) deal to partner with Costco on a co-branded credit card.
Cathay United Bank, the banking arm of Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), announced in November last year that it would end a decade-long credit card partnership with Costco on Aug. 7 this year amid speculation that Taipei Fubon Bank had spent NT$1.2 billion (US$39.52 million) to snatch the co-branding rights from Cathay United Bank.
Photo: Wu Hsin-tien, Taipei Times
Taipei Fubon Bank had not commented on the speculation until recently, when it said it would provide attractive privileges to cardholders to make the new co- branded credit cards a “must have” for consumers.
Costco only accepts co-branded credit cards for non-cash payments in its stores.
There are currently 2.7 million holders of Cathay United Bank’s Costco co-branded credit cards, but after the bank’s partnership with Costco ends on Aug. 7, those cardholders will no longer be able to use their cards to buy goods at Costco’s 14 stores in Taiwan.
People who get Taipei Fubon Bank’s co-branded credit card with Costco will not be able to use it at Costco outlets before Aug. 7, but will be able to use it like any other credit card to make purchases elsewhere.
Cathay United Bank is the second-largest credit card issuer in Taiwan, having issued 7.89 million credit cards as of September last year, behind CTBC Bank (中信銀行), a unit of CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控), with 8.33 million, analysts said.
Cathay United Bank, however, has 5.57 million active credit cards, defined as cards used to make purchases within the past six months, 387,192 more than CTBC Bank, analysts said.
In 2013, Cathay United Bank took over the co-branded credit card agreement with Costco from CTBC Bank.
Once Taipei Fubon Bank takes over the co-branded credit card deal with Costco, it should see its active credit cards grow to 5.64 million, topping Cathay United Bank.
It will also move up two notches to become the third-largest credit card issuer in Taiwan, with the number of credit cards issued increasing from about 4.8 million at present, according to analysts.
According to Cathay United Bank, holders of its Costco co-branded credit card will be given the chance to transfer those cards to the soon-to-be-launched CUBE credit card program.
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