BoB Sold Stakes to BBVA

Bank of Baroda (BoB) in December 2010 announced  that it sold 51% of its equity stake in its credit card company, Bobcards, to a Spanish bank BBVA for euro 34 million. BoB’s credit card company, Bobcards was started in 1984 and has affiliation with Visa and Master Card. The Madrid-headquartered BBVA, or Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria the second-largest bank in Spain with more than euro 557 billion in total assets and a presence in over 30 countries. Bank of Baroda also signed a MoU with BBVA. The joint venture company of BoB and BBVA will only be formed after regulatory authorities -RBI and Bank of Spain give their approval.

The joint venture to be formed will leverage upon the 36 million customer base of Bank of Baroda spread over more than 3200 domestic branches. The credit card business in India is currently dominated by private banks like ICICI and HDFC Bank, foreign players like Standard Chartered and Citi and the SBI-GE joint venture SBI Cards.