Axis Bank to begin process of rebranding Citi cards from H1 FY25

Axis Bank will begin the process of recarding, or issuing rebranded Citi cards under the Axis brand, from the first half of the next financial year, said Arjun Chowdhry, Group Executive and Head, Affluent Banking, NRI, Cards and Payments.

“Because of the branding requirements, we will start the process of recarding… We expect to start that somewhere in the first half of FY25. We’ll try to finish it as fast as possible; it will depend on the pace of delivery and printing, but we’ll start in H1 FY25,” he said at the sidelines of an event.

“We’ll do so in a manner which is completely seamless for our customers. They won’t have to do any of the retokenise or card-on-file requirements, but the plastic will have to change because that carries the Citi brand. The numbers will remain the same,” he added.

On any migration or shift of carholders within the Citi and Axis cards, Chowdhry said both businesses are “very complementary” and so there weren’t any overalaps. Citi was focussed on the top 10 cities and operated in a specific market, whereas Axis Bank has been growing across the country and across varied market segments.

“It was such a complementary business that we’ve hardly seen any substitution. It’s been largely accretive,” he said, adding that the bank has seen the business grow since the merger. “We’ve seen per-card spending grow and the balance sheet grow.”