RIYADH, 29 January — A co-branded credit card was launched jointly by the Saudi American Bank and Sony to stimulate the Kingdom's slow growing credit card market.
The Sony Card from Samba, available in both Visa and MasterCard versions, made its debut at a press conference attended by Prince Muhammad K.A. Al-Faisal, group vice president, Al-Faisaliah Holding Co., Zaki Al-Mousa, head of private banking at SAMBA, Suren Khirwadkar, general manager for consumer assets business, and Hajime Murano, director of Sony Gulf FZe.
Sony products are distributed in the Kingdom by Modern Electronics. Eisa Al-Eisa, country business manager of Saudi American Bank, was also present. The launch of the co-branded credit card with Sony is seen as a strategic move aimed at capitalizing on the Kingdom's youthful demographic pattern where 50 percent of the population is under 20 years old.
Describing it as a groundbreaking collaboration between Saudi American Bank and Sony Gulf FZe, Al-Mousa said,
"The new Sony Card works just like any Samba credit card and can be used at over 18 million establishments in the Kingdom and abroad. It also comes with a unique feature... Every purchase of Sony products earns double Sony points and double warranty periods."
Speaking on behalf of Sony Gulf FZe, Murano referred to Sony's market share in the Kingdom which, he said, stood at 50 percent of the electronics market worth SR700 million last year.
He explained that points are awarded with card transactions and are redeemable at any Sony showroom.
Khirwadkar replied that existing cardholders need only pay the difference between the regular SAMBA credit card and the co-branded Sony-SAMBA card to benefit.
Pointing out that the total number of credit cards sold in the Kingdom was just 560,000, Khirwadkar said the potential was huge. He hoped that the launch of their latest product would give a much-needed boost to the credit card market.
