KB Kookmin Card President Choi Gi-eui said he heard words of advice for his company to be one of the most popular firms in Cherry Picker in an interview with a local media on Jan. 16.

He said he met with Cho Kyu-bom, a Cherry Picker App. Developer and sought from him various advises on management of a credit card firm.

Choi said most of credit card firms worry that they might be swamped by Cherry Picker, but he changed his thoughts and even if his company's operation would be damaged by it, they should cope with it positively if their customers remain loyal.

Cherry Pickers mean consumers who care about their advantage, not helping the profits of credit card firms as the word literally means those who pick only cherries and eat, not new grapes.

Choi said his card firm will soon introduce the product allowing customers to pick directly additional services  it offers and the annual fees are determined by the additional service levels. He said customers can pick additional services when their cards are issued, which will determine the annual fees. This way the card issuance fees can be reduced, while allowing all kinds of additional services that customers want.

He also said Kookmin Card will go after the VVIP card market as it will issue its own VVIP card in cooperation with American Express with annual fee of 3 million won during the first half of this year.

CEO Choi also said the company will issue a credit card specialized for annual year-end accounting, which will show a cardholder's annual expenditures with the credit and check cards. In an interview with a local media, he said the company completed a study on the issuance of the specialized card and will issue it soon.

From this year, the tax exemption rate would rise to 30 percent for check card users from 25 percent before, alerting the credit card firms to issue check cards.

Before issuing the special check card, the firm will need the annual income of the customer and store them in computers and the amount of expenditure that goes over the tax exemption amount will be transferred to credit card in a dual payment system using both check and credit cards.

Another smart card that the company has been considering is KB One Card, which is a credit card tailored to holders' consumer patterns such as at gas stations, hospitals and marts, among others, as preferred by cardholders and the projected card can also accumulate annual fees at year-end.

The company has been doing well since its split with Kookmin Bank in March in 2010. KB Kookmin Wise Card, which the company issued since its independence, has been very successful with its cardholders now numbering around 1 million, although its been only nine months.

The company also has issued the largest number of new cards at 1.74 million and at the same in the issuance of check cards, the company came on top of rivals.

The company's annual turnover last year amounted to around 75 trillion won, up more than 10 trillion won from 2010 and net profit of 400 billion won.

President Choi's closest advisor is Cherry Picker because he met with the developer of Cherry Picker applications and asked him what kind of credit card service he wanted and got the answer from him.  nw