RHB’s new commercial cards for SMES, corporates

By Digital News Asia March 5, 2019

RHB Purchasing Charge Card-i is the only Islamic commercial charge card in Malaysia
Targets to issue a total of 78,000 new cards over the next five years

(From left) RHB Bank head Group Cards and Unsecured Business Sien Vee Loc; Visa country manager for Malaysia Ng Kong Boon; RHB Banking Group acting head Group Retail Banking Nazri Othman; RHB Islamic Bank MD/CEO Adissadikin Ali; and RHB Banking Group head of Group Business and Transaction Banking Jeffrey Ng

RHB Banking Group (RHB) delivers a cashless payment method for SME and corporate clients through the newly-launched RHB commercial cards.

This offering comprises RHB conventional and Islamic credit and charge cards namely; RHB Corporate Credit Card/ Card-i, RHB Corporate Charge Card /Card-i and RHB Purchasing Charge Card/Card-i.

RHB Purchasing Charge Card-i is currently the first and only Islamic charge card offered to SME and corporate clients in Malaysia. It provides an alternative for businesses who opt for Syariah compliant charge card while enjoying the same benefits that the conventional RHB Purchasing Charge Card offers.

This card is based on the Syariah concept of Ujrah (fee) where the payment of service fee imposed is in exchange for services, privileges and benefits rendered to businesses.

Through the RHB Commercial Cards/Card-i, businesses will be able to enjoy a host of rewards that will help them optimise financial resources and strategically manage cash flow.

SME and corporate clients will be able to free-up funds for other business purposes, and offer employees the convenience as well as spending power for travel, entertainment and business-related expenses.

The cards offer clients an unlimited 1% cash-back on the companies’ overseas retail transactions and unlimited 0.5% cash-back on selected domestic retail transactions.

The cards will also drive greater efficiency on purchase processes and spending as well as effectively managing procure-to-pay processes, and eliminating cheques and paper invoices for SME and corporate clients spanning local and global spending. This is in line with Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) effort to drive cashless payment systems and reduce traditional payment modes.

“RHB is proud to be able to offer SME and corporate clients versatile solutions to strategically manage cash flow and to reduce the time and cost of paying for various business-to-business goods and services locally and globally. We are confident that these cards will offer businesses more value-added interactions and deliver superior customer experiences,” said Nazri Othman, acting head, Group Retail Banking, RHB Banking Group.

“Through this offering, we aim to empower SMEs with the ability to better manage financial resources and expand their businesses beyond borders,” he added.

With the launch of the new RHB Commercial Cards, RHB targets to issue a total of 78,000 new cards over the next five years to SMEs and corporate clients. This is in line with the bank’s FIT22 target to drive credit card spend to achieve double digit growth year-on-year by end of 2022.

“The launch of the RHB Commercial Cards is a milestone for us today, given it is the first time we are introducing a Visa commercial product with RHB. There is a huge opportunity to increase use of digital payments amongst small, medium and large enterprises in Malaysia, given many of them today are still heavily reliant on cash.

“The benefits of providing the SMEs and corporate clients with a digital solution include helping them to better manage and have visibility of their cash flow, reducing labour hours required to manually consolidate their expenses and more. In Malaysia, we are seeing good growth in commercial card spend and transactions at double-digit year-on-year.

“As we continue to expand our commercial card offerings to more banks in Malaysia, we believe the growth of digital payments will accelerate further, which is aligned with Bank Negara Malaysia’s vision,” said Ng Kong Boon, Visa country manager for Malaysia.

In conjunction with the launch, RHB Commercial Card/Card-i members will enjoy additional 2,000 Grab Reward Points when travelling to any local airports with Grab.

On top of that, businesses will receive additional 0.5% cash-back on all agreed premium with RHB Insurance. RHB is also collaborating with CIT Travel to offer a 50% off on the second air ticket purchase with RHB Commercial Cards.