Assessment of Credit Card Market Features in Malaysia: Risk of Achieving Women’s Financial Empowerment

Abstract

There are many market segmentations in the credit card industry in Malaysia. One of the special categories of credit card is dedicated to the women group only and promoted as a tool for increasing women empowerment, women entrepreneurship development and women financial access ability. Therefore, this study compares the features of credit cards dedicated to women and credit cards in general in Malaysia through descriptive statistics and one-way ANOVA test. This study utilizes data of currently available total 234 unique credit cards including four credit cards dedicated to the women group. The data analyses 13 features of credit cards. Among them only two features of credit cards dedicated to women are statistically significantly different from credit cards in general, which are annual charge for balance transfer and cash back facility. Therefore, it is recommended to make more distinguish features in the credit cards that are dedicated to them to encourage more women entrepreneurship as well as to ensure their real financial empowerment. The outcomes of this research will provide useful interpretations to women consumers, business managers, NGOs, government agencies and other policymakers who are working on women’s development issues.

Assessment of Features and Market Segmentation of the Credit Card Industry in Malaysia

“…However, based on the study's findings there are a few cases where the features of both cards significantly differ, for example: interest/profit rate, balance transfer fees, annual fees, cash withdrawal fees, and annual fees for supplementary cards. Similarly, while comparing the features of credit cards dedicated to women and credit cards in general in Malaysia, study showed that only two features of credit cards dedicated to women are statistically significantly different from credit cards: annual charge for balance transfer and cash back facility [9].…”

“…Platinum cards are reserved for the wealthy, and they come with extra services as well as special offers from restaurants, airlines, and high-end hotels. As a result, numerous credit cards are issued to different user groups, each with its own set of benefits [7,9]. It is also found that the greater the level of attitude index, the more likelihood of having strong credit balances, the more favourable one's overall disposition to using credit, but the bigger the instalment debt will be [10].…”