What potential for the card?
The new card is for the middle market in ASEAN. It has been around in the US for quite a number of years. We launched it in Australia two-and-a-half years ago where it was highly successful. It was launched in India and Singapore this year. We have been evaluating the market for a couple of years and now feel that the market has matured.
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) do not have the time, skill, focus or resources to negotiate for lower rates. Their processing costs alone make up eight per cent of their total T&E costs. With Amex's corporate card, we can streamline 70 per cent of that eight per cent and everything is conveniently done on one portal.
Do you have to give your suppliers a minimum volume guarantee?
We do not promise the suppliers any particular volume. They understand we are the largest corporate card company globally and suppliers are also encouraged by the fact that we are also the largest corporate travel agency.
We introduce new savings partners into the programme every three months. These are predominantly travel-related such as airline, hotel and car rental deals, but there are also other partners such as courier services and computer companies. The programme will grow and expand and it is going to get better and we will continue to sharpen it. The mid-sized companies are keen because they can't go out and get the deals themselves. Many of them don't have travel management and this is virgin territory for them.
How will you educate this “virgin territory”?
The large end of the market is just beginning to recognise and embrace the importance of travel management and this is beginning to filter down to the smaller companies.
We will be educating the market over the next couple of years.
As part of its initiative to bring the concept of expense management to mid-sized companies here, Amex has teamed up with the Association of Small and Medium Enterprise for a half day business forum on cost management tools for SMEs.
We are focusing on the top 30,000 companies, which represent a large part of the middle market.
