We have earlier introduced you to some of the very exclusive cards, including the American Express Black Card, and the diamond-studded Royale MasterCard for Dubai’s elites.

Now, MasterCard and Kazkommertsbank, the second largest bank in Kazakhstan, together are bringing a MasterCard credit card festooned with gold and diamonds.
Known as the “Diamond”, the card has a 0.02-carat gem ¬embedded in its centre and a picture of a peacock for female cardholders and a winged horse for men.

The card, which has a $1,000 (£620) annual fee, is to be issued in two weeks’ time by MasterCard and Kazkommertsbank, the second largest bank in commodities-rich Kazakhstan, where the oil and minerals boom of recent years has created a fresh crop of billionaires.

Asked about the timing of the launch, the bank’s head of international payment systems, Alla Voyakina, said: “The [financial] crisis is also affecting us but we are talking about rich people, they can afford to have such cards. It’s a question of prestige to have such cards in your -wallet.”

The diamond was “only a design element”, Ms Voyakina said. “It’s showing your status.” The card comes as even the super-rich are feeling the pain of the credit crunch. Spending on items such as $1,000 mobile phones is expected to end a boom that more than doubled the size of the global luxury goods market in the past decade.

However, Ms Voyakina said the bank had a target audience of “the best of VIP customers” and only planned to issue 1,000 cards. Each would have a credit limit of $50,000, about $20,000 higher than the highest limit on some MasterCard platinum cards (Pictured above is the diamond-studded Royale MasterCard issued earlier for Dubai’s elites).

Who wants to be a billionaire? More than 40 impoverished Chinese tycoons who have lost their platinum status thanks to the world’s financial turmoil. As we have recently reported, some russian and Indian billionaires have been losing money since the beginning of the financial crisis, and, according to the Guardian, they are not alone !

There were 66 Chinese billionaires in 2007 but there are just 24 now due to the plunging Chinese stock market. The combined worth of the country’s 400 richest people has plummeted by 40% to a mere $173 billion since last year, new research has shown, and the top 40 lost 57% of their wealth according to Forbes magazine.

« Property magnates dominated 2007’s list, but the sales have slumped this year, wiping out 98% of Cheung Chung Kiu’s fortune. Last year, the boss of developer CC Land, stood at number 26. Now he is outside the top 400. »

Those who lost their money are hopeful that the tide will turn and they will be back up again soon. After all two years ago, there were only 15 Chinese billionaires. Source Luxist / The Guardian

Indian steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, the richest man in Europe and the 4th richest man in the world, is now the world’s biggest loser from the credit crunch with more than £16 billion/ $29 billion wiped off his fortune by plummeting stock markets in just four months.

Mittal has seen his family’s stake in ArcelorMittal, the steel conglomerate, fall from £33.2/$58.2 billion on June 4 this year to £16.6/$29 billion at the close of Friday’s markets. The loss is the equivalent of £137m/$240 million a day or nearly £6m/$10 million an hour.

Mittal, who paid a record $200 million for a Georgian mansion in Kensington Palace Gardens earlier this year, heads a list of 10 super-rich losers who between them have seen their share portfolios shrink by some £23/$40 billion from their peaks.But no worries, Mittal has still $17 billion left, the London Times reports.

Lakshmi Mittal and family: Steel
Down £16.6bn /$29bn

Anil Agarwal: Metals
Down £2.7bn / $4.7bn

Mike Ashley: Sports retail
Down £960m / $1.7bn

China now has more super rich than Japan, mostly entrepreneurs benefiting from the country’s surging economic growth. According to a survey released by Capgemini and Merrill Lynch on Sept. 25, at the end of 2007 China boasted more than 6,000 people worth more than $30 million a piece, excluding their principal residence. Japan only had about 5,300.

Japan however is still home to 56 percent of high net worth individuals in the Asia-Pacific region, or 1.5 million Japanese with US$1 million or more in investible assets excluding their primary residence.

India and Vietnam are also seeing a fast expanding pool of wealthy residents. Like China, they saw the number of millionaires increase by more than 20 percent last year, according to this year’s Asia-Pacific Wealth Report.

Japan’s millionaires have mostly inherited wealth, making them far more risk-averse than the rich in emerging economies like China and Vietnam, who tend to be first-generation wealthy and far more willing to take chances with their money, Capgemini said.

Hong Kong’s 95,000 millionaires, led by a clutch of property tycoons, have the highest average net worth in the region at U$5.4 million, compared with a global average of US$4 million.

The region’s 2.8 million high net worth individuals account for nearly a third of the world’s millionaire population. In addition, Asia’s still solid economic growth should continue to boost the number of high net worth individuals by 8 percent this year and for each of the next four years. By 2012 their wealth should reach US$13.9 trillion, up from US$9.5 trillion in 2007, the survey predicted.

According to Forbes, Golfing pro Tiger Woods will become the world’s first billionaire athlete in the next few years. In 2007 alone, Woods earned $115 million, $65 million more than the second highest paid athlete, David Beckham.

Woods’ career earnings will hit the $1 billion mark by 2010 but given the taxes (45%), Tiger Woods should join the list of the world’s billionaires in 2011.

It will be an unprecedented occurrence. There are plenty of billionaires who have excelled at sports, but there are no billionaires who accumulated their fortune by playing sports. “A billionaire Tiger would also be unique for earning his money through paychecks. If a billionaire didn’t inherit his or her money, he or she typically made it by holding a stake in a company with a soaring valuation”

Of course, most of his wealth comes from endorsement deals as Prize money only accounts for about one-tenth of his earnings.

When Nike signed Woods to an endorsement deal in 1996, it didn’t have a separate golf unit. It launched one in 1998, with Woods at the center of its marketing push. Last year, Nike Golf posted over $600 million in sales. It is now the biggest golf apparel company in the world.

Television ratings for golf tournaments increase by nearly a third when Woods is playing though. “He has brought a new level of interest and fans to the sport that weren’t there before he arrived”.

Elite Traveler, the worldwide private jet lifestyle magazine, has recently released its much anticipated “101 Top Hotel/Resort Suites of the Year” in the July/August 2008 issue.

The Super-Rich continue to traverse the globe on private jets, experiencing the best the world has to offer in terms of hotel and resort accommodations, shopping, and living the private jet lifestyle.

The most expensive suite on the 101 Top Suites this year is in Europe, the $52,000/night Royal Penthouse Suite at the Hotel President Wilson in Geneva Switzerland, which is only reserved for Hed of states and celebrities