Credit card issuance: HDFC Bank widens gap with nearest rival SBI Card

The gap between the number of credit cards issued by HDFC Bank and SBI Card widened to 1.5 million at the end of January 2024, from about 1 million cards a year back, data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed.

HDFC Bank — the largest credit card issuer — achieved record 20.10 million cards in circulation at the end of January 2024, in comparison to 19.88 million in December 2023. Meanwhile, SBI Card, the second-largest issuer, had 18.60 million cards in force as of January 2024.

The gap between these card issuers has been widening since August 2023 — it was around 0.73 million in August.

The total number of credit cards in circulation was 99.5 million in January 2024, steadily rising from 97.9 million in December 2023.

In the past year, the total credit cards in force (CIF) increased by around 17.1 million cards from 82.4 million.

Among other key credit card issuers, ICICI Bank’s CIF rose to nearly 16.80 million and Axis Bank to 13.75 million, as of January 2024.

Credit card spending of the industry increased to Rs 1.66 trillion in January 2024 from Rs 1.65 trillion in December 2023 on the back of healthy growth in point of sale (PoS) and e-commerce transactions. Transactions under PoS rose to Rs 58,531.77 crore from Rs 58,300.18 crore in December 2023, and e-commerce payments inched up to Rs 1.08 trillion crore from Rs 1.07 trillion in December 2023.

Value of transactions of the leading credit issuers showed a mixed trend with the industry leader HDFC Bank clocking a moderation in the value to Rs 43,711.47 crore in January from Rs 44,771.87 crore in December 2023. SBI Card’s credit card increased to Rs 30,693.83 crore from Rs 29,249.29 crore.

On the other hand, ICICI Bank’s card transactions value rose to Rs 29,672.96 crore from Rs 28,213.32 crore between December 2023 and January 2024. Axis Bank posted a rise to Rs 20,305.45 crore from Rs 19,055.30 crore during the same period.