Foreign lender Standard Chartered Bank is aiming to give a big boost to its credit card business in India in the coming year.

The bank has already started working in this field with the first step taken being online approval of credit cards, informed Mr Shymal Saxena, General Manager-Retail Banking Products, India and South Asia.

The online mechanism allows approval in just 30 seconds after the customer gives in the details of the card.

"We are quite optimistic about the card business. About 8-10 months back we saw the credit environment improving. Also, dangers such as overleveraging have now been addressed by credit bureaus, which have a lot of information. So, banks can take the right underwriting decisions. That gives us a confidence to be more aggressive," Mr Saxena said.

The lender plans to allow online approval at branch level too. This will facilitate card disbursal within 48 hours of completion of documentation process.