Foreign lender, Deutsche Bank has finally decided to make an exit from its credit card business in India. The bank was harbouring plans for the sell out and had invited bids from other interested entities.

So far it has received 11 bids which include ICICI Bank, Karnataka Bank, Dhanlaxmi Bank, YES Bank and Standard Chartered Bank. The bank presently has 1.5 lakh active cards and has outstandings amounting nearly to Rs 200-250 crore.

Dhanlaxmi Bank MD & CEO Amitabh Chaturvedi said, "We have evaluated the portfolio as it gives us ready access to a customer base and is a strategic fit. But we have yet to take a final view because the price is somewhat high."

The CMD of another private lender who was present for the bid said that, "The customer profile is good and what makes it attractive is that the bank has been adding only platinum cards, having pared the classic and gold card base over time."

The global economic slowdown had hit the credit card business of most commercial banks. RBI data reveal that the credit card market has dipped to 18.21 million cards at the end of October 2010 from 21.18 million cards in October 2009. However the increasing percentage of card spends is a reason to cheer.