INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Festival season helped credit card spends touch a record high of Rs1.22 trillion in September
But the banking system saw a net reduction of close to 290,000 cards during this period, impacted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) norms
year-on-year (YoY) and has remained over the Rs1-trillion mark for over six months now, indicating a sustained increase in consumer spends
analysts at Motilal Oswal, in a report.
Among large players, SBI Card, ICICI Bank, and Axis Bank have gained market share in spends as they
saw strong MoM growth of 19 per cent, 18 per cent, and 28 per cent, respectively, but HDFC Bank has lost a significant market share.
SBI
Card's market share in spends increased by 159 basis points (bps) in September over August, while that of ICICI Bank rose by 142 bps and 162
On the other hand, HDFC Bank's market share declined by 234 bps.
As of H1FY23, in terms of spends, HDFC Bank has 27.7 per cent market
share, followed by ICICI Bank with 19.3 per cent, SBI Card with 18 per cent, and Axis Bank with 9.2 per cent.
The net reduction in credit
cards by about 290,000 has meant that the total outstanding credit cards in the system has fallen to 77.7 million
Last month, the outstanding credit card base had dropped to 77.99 million from 80 million in July, thereby losing over 2 million cards in a
Players such as SBI Card, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank will continue their strong performance, said the Motilal
Oswal report.
Kotak Mahindra Bank was the largest acquirer in September with 192,311cards, followed by IDFC First Bank with 90,645 cards,
Bank of Baroda with 74,892 cards, and IndusInd Bank with 62,299 cards.
On the other hand, HDFC Bank lost around 100,000 cards, ICICI Bank
lost 620,667 cards, and Axis Bank lost around over 54,000 cards.
