Mumbai, May 1 -- The board of Federal Bank has approved the acquisition of a select portfolio of retail credit cards from UK-based Standard Chartered, the private sector lender informed the exchanges on Thursday. The bank said it will provide further details on the deal in "due course". The deal values the portfolio at 1.5-1.6 times implied equity as estimated by Federal Bank. The final consideration will be linked to actual balances at the time of transfer. The proposed transaction does not require regulatory approvals and is expected to be completed in 2026, it added. Arpwood Capital Private is the financial advisor to Federal Bank, Khaitan & Co is the legal counsel, and KPMG is the due diligence advisor. Trilegal is Standard Chartered's legal counsel. The transaction will deepen Federal Bank's presence in tier-1 cities and help Standard Chartered accelerate its strategy to sharpen its focus on the wealth and affluent segment in India, the banks said in a joint release. Federal Bank will acquire around 450,000 credit cards from Standard Chartered, adding to its existing base of 800,000 non-co-branded cards and 1.3 million co-branded cards. Approximately 75% of the acquired card base is concentrated in India's top eight cities. "The portfolio we are acquiring is of good quality, highly seasoned active credit card users, and is concentrated in the markets that align with our strategy. This further accelerates the growth of our already fast-growing cards business," KVS Manian, managing director and chief executive officer of Federal Bank was quoted as saying in the release. Federal Bank's credit card portfolio stood at Rs.4,368 crore as at the end of March 2026, up 2.3% on quarter and 23% on year. The bank had 2.22 million credit cards-in-force at the end of the last financial year, with credit card spends during March 2026 amounting to Rs.2,675 crore, as per the latest data by the Reserve Bank of India. Standard Chartered does not disclose the standalone credit card book. However, its unsecured loans, including credit cards and personal loans stood at $296 million (around Rs.2,800 crore) as of 31 March....