Credit card buys seen 8% lower in Apr-June quarter, say analysts

Among players in the credit card segment, HDFC Bank, despite a ban on issuing new credit cards, retained a sizeable, and, perhaps, the lar­gest market share in spends, at 27 per cent in May.

Credit card spends appear to have recovered in June judging by trends, compared with a 7 per cent month-on-month decline in May because of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

On a quarterly basis, however, analysts expect credit card spends to be 8 per cent lower in the first quarter of financial year 2021-22 (Q1FY22) than in Q4FY21. 

According to a report by ICICI Securities, at the systemic level, the impact of the second wave on credit card and other payments was much lesser than during the first wave, and recovery, too, has been faster. Notwithsta­nding the sequential decline, at Rs