The Bank of Jerusalem (TASE: JBNK) is in talks with Isracard Ltd. to market American Express credit card to customers. The parties have already exchanged documents, and the bank will probably begin marketing the credit cards by the end of the year.
The Bank of Jerusalem will market American Express Business and Gold cards to the bank's platinum customers and foreign residents, who already know the American Express brand, and are therefore easy targets.
The Bank of Jerusalem is also in negotiations with Israel Credit Cards-Cal Ltd. (ICC-Cal) (Visa) to change the terms of their joint activity. The bank wants to market Visa credit cards to its regular customers.
Isracard has marketed American Express cards in Israel since 1995. Globally, American Express Inc. (NYSE: AXP) is considered to have the strongest credit card. CNN ranked it the world's third top financial brand in 2008, for the third consecutive year, and the 13th leading brand overall.
American Express has 250,000 credit cards in Israel. The average monthly use of the regular card is NIS 3,279, compared with the overall credit card monthly average of NIS 2,600.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 14, 2009
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