The bank is targeting 10 million credit cards in the period, Jeffrey Chen, president of the lender's credit card center, said on the sidelines of a banking conference held by the Asian Banker magazine yesterday.

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Citic has already issued almost three million credit card on the Chinese mainland. It broke even on its credit card business last year and expects to turn a profit this year.

Market competition is fierce, and the bank will seek multiple channels for issuing credit cards, he said.

Citic Bank is not alone in its big ambition to grow bigger in China's nascent but lucrative credit card market.

China Merchants Bank has already issued more than 12 million credit cards. The Industrial an d Commercial Bank of China, the country's biggest lender, is also in the hunt.

ICBC expects to issue about 10 million new cards this year, compared with 10.46 million last year, said Li Weiping, president of the Beijing-based bank's card center.

Overseas rivals including the Bank of East Asia and Standard Chartered Bank also noted they are interested in issuing yuan-backed cards.

Credit cards will become the most important consumer credit product after mortgages, with profit forecast to reach US$1.6 billion by 2013, accounting for 22 percent of total consumer credit profits.

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