SBM Bank India Teams With Mastercard To Debut ‘Premium’ Debit Card

SBM Bank India, the Mumbai-based lender, and Mastercard have introduced a premium debit card for high-net-worth customers.

Available to its Private Wealth customers, the SBM World Debit Card offers a variety of global experiences, from cooking lessons with top chefs to seats at the Singapore Grand Prix Formula One World Championship car races, the bank announced.

Customers can also choose a luxury golf experience, private sightseeing tours, carefully chosen global dining and lifestyle experiences, luxury car rentals, more than 1,000 global hotel and travel privileges, unlimited free withdrawals at all bank ATMs and no mark-up on international transactions.

Additionally, SBM customers can get preferential personal banking services, such as better rates on savings accounts with monthly interest payouts and competitive foreign exchange rates, the bank said.

“We are focused on extending best-in-class products and power-packed banking solutions accentuated with the finest benefits, to our SBM Private Wealth Clients,” said Neeraj Sinha, head of retail and consumer banking at SBM, in a statement.

SBM and Mastercard did not detail the costs.

In May, Mastercard vowed to connect one billion people and 50 micro-businesses to the digital economy within five years. In addition, the company said it will offer tools to 25 million female entrepreneurs to fuel their business growth.

Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga said in a statement that long-term recovery from the crisis is dependent on inclusion. He said this moves beyond philanthropy, offering a chance to develop commercially sustainable and scalable social impact with government and private-sector partners – and to do it in a way that helps society-at-large thrive.

The company’s latest pledge builds on its 2015 effort to bring financial services to 500 million people, as well as its goals of reaching out to people all over the world who are facing physical and financial health issues due to COVID-19.

Ling Hai, co-president of Asia Pacific at Mastercard, said the pandemic has shown that the digital economy can sustain societies and commerce during times of great adversity. It has also revealed the extreme disadvantage faced by shoppers and small businesses left out of the digital economy who need affordable financial products and services.

“For SMEs, access to the digital economy allows them to manage expenses and invoices and to automate and secure processes, freeing up valuable time and resources to focus on other aspects of running their businesses,” he said.