KUCHING: Local bankgroup Maybank Bhd (Maybank) saw increased take-up for its Petronas Maybankard Visa cards since its launch in January 2008.
JUBILANT WINNERS: Azarul (third left) and Yang (front, second right) share their joy with other winners of the contest. Joining them are Nasran (left), Tomlinson (back, fifth left), Ibrahim (back, sixth left) and Maybank’s head of cards and payments-consumer banking, B Ravintharan (back, right).
Maybank Islamic Bhd’s chief executive officer Ibrahim Hassan observed that new card take-ups has grown by 30 per cent year-to-date as at February, compared with last year.
“The increase in new card take-up is testimony of the high valued propositions as well as attractive benefits and rewards programmes for cardmembers,” he said at a special prize presentation ceremony to winners of the ‘Petronas Maybankard Visa Contest’, held recently at Menara Maybank in Kuala Lumpur.
The contest was a collaborative effort between Maybank, Petronas and Visa International to reward their customers. The contest, which ran from Feb 15 to March 15 and was opened to Petronas Maybankard Visa and Petronas ‘Ikhwan’ Visa cardmembers, offered a total of RM650,000 worth of tickets to watch the F1 Grand Prix live at Sepang International Circuit from April 2-4.
In addition to this, Maybank is also offering an eight per cent discount until this April 4 to other Maybankard’s credit or debit cardmembers who wish to buy tickets for the F1 Grand Prix.
On the campaign, Ibrahim noted that more than 1.2 million entries were received during the one-month period.
“The campaign was successful in garnering a 24 per cent increase in transactions alone at Petronas stations, compared to the same period in 2009. The billings at Petronas stations also grew more than 39 per cent over the same period, with overall billings growing by 56 per cent,” he added.
Maybank and Petronas has partnered since the F1 Grand Prix started in 1999. Since then, both groups have held various joint-campaigns that offer cardmembers various rewards for using their Maybank Petronas Visa cards.
Meanwhile, for cardmembers, Azarul Ariff Asa Ari and Yang Chee Yong, it was a dream-come-true when they emerged as two grand prize winners for the contest.
Both lucky winners received a ‘Paddock Club Ticket’ with Club Privileges worth RM14,400 each to witness the Petronas Malaysian F1 Grand Prix 2010 this coming April 4.
Azarul and Yang were among 200 winners of the contest, with allocated prizes up to the fifth place.
Also present for the ceremony were Petronas Dagangan Bhd’s assistant manager for customer management (cards department), Mohd Nasran Shukery, and Visa International’s country manager for Malaysia, Stuart Tomlinson.