Equity Bank and American Express have launched one of the first American Express Cards in Kenya. The lender now offers Kenyan consumers the Equity Bank American Express Green Card and the Equity Bank American Express Gold.
The partnership gives Equity the exclusive rights to issue American Express cards in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. It also acquires merchants on to the American Express network in these countries.
The bank said the two cards have been designed specifically with Kenyan consumers in mind. The Green Card offers a range of retail and lifestyle benefits and is ideal for those who will mainly use their card to spend at local merchants in Kenya. The Gold Card offers an additional tier of travel and lifestyle benefits and is particularly suited to those who are more frequent travellers or more likely to spend on leisure.
Both offer automatic enrollment to Membership Rewards, where members can collect points on all spend at both merchant locations and ATMs, and redeem them for a wide range of rewards including flights, hotel stays, electronics, retail vouchers and luxury goods. They can also choose to redeem their points for charitable contributions.
Mr Andrew Stewart, Vice President and General Manager, Partner Card Services Turkey, Middle East and Africa said, “We are excited to partner with Equity Bank to launch the first American Express Cards in Kenya. This is an important milestone for our business and brings an opportunity to offer tailored products for Kenyan consumers.”
Dr James Mwangi, Equity Bank Group CEO said, “Our association with American Express is part of our mission to deliver nothing but the best card solutions.”
He added: “This partnership is in line with our business strategy of becoming a one stop international payment gateway and giving our customers and partners the freedom of modern banking in today’s fast-paced world. Equity has made significant investments in its diaspora remittances, merchant acquiring infrastructure and banking and transaction processing by connecting to leading global payment systems.
Last year, the two companies signed an agreement where Equity acquires American Express Cards onto the bank’s POS terminals and ATMs. As an American Express merchant acquirer, it is supporting the expansion of the American Express network by developing and maintaining new merchant relationships in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
