Public sector, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) finally launched its much awaited white-labelled credit card on Monday, March 30th.

Launching the card, LIC Managing Director D K Mehrotra said, "We have launched our credit card today. The card would be like other credit cards but we will also offer value-added services like payment of premiums for our policy-holders."

In the first phase the insurance giant is going to target its existing policyholders for selling the card. "Initially, we will be offering cards to our policy- holders which will enable them to pay their premiums using the card," said Mehrotra.

LIC has tied up with Corporation Bank for issuing the credit card that would be available in New Delhi and Mumbai at limited scale for now.

The card is a Visa branded credit card that will have a photo of the cardholder and signature digitally imprinted over it. It is an internationally valid card that would also facilitate the policyholders to pay premiums from outstation thus saving on the bank charges.

The credit card business of LIC will be run through a separate firm, LIC Credit Cards Services. The card would be managed by Corporation Bank that has given the contract for end to end processing of credit cards to a leading electronic payment solutions provider, ELECTRACARD SERVICES (ECS).

LIC had announced its plans to roll out its credit card in the beginning of September, 2008 only.