Debit card issuances pick up in FY23 after 7-month slowdown a year earlier

Banks issue 17 mn cards in first five months of current fiscal, up 30% from 13 mn cards in year-ago period; Customers prefer debit cards for small value transactions, says report

Commercial banks issued around 17 million cards during the first five months of the current financial year as compared to 13 million issued during the comparable period of last year. Debit card issuances slowed down during the last seven months of the previous financial year, which saw addition of only six million cards as banks cleaned up their card portfolios by weeding out inactive plastic.

According to Worldline’s digital payments report, the total number of credit and debit cards in circulation by the end of Q2 of CY22 (June-end) was one billion.

“While the number of credit cards increased by 25 per cent from 62.81 million in June 2021 to 78.7 million in June 2022, debit cards increased by two per cent, from 906 million to 921.75 million, during the same period; this could, however, be the base effect as well as account clean-ups by banks, which is highlighted by the number of cards falling in early 2022,” the report said.

While HDFC Bank, SBI, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and RBL Bank are some of the top credit card issuing banks, SBI, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank, Punjab National Bank and Canara Bank took a lead in adding new debit cards.

The report said while credit cards are preferred for high value transactions, customers tend to use debit cards for low value transactions.

According to the report, debit card transactions volume and value stood at 973.12 million and Rs1.91 trillion respectively during April-June.

Of total debit card volume, transactions at POS were 629.48 million and ecommerce were 343.64 million. 

In terms of value, Rs1.28 trillion was processed at POS terminals while Rs642.12 billion was processed at e-commerce via debit cards.

“Indians are getting more comfortable to make online purchases via credit cards for big-ticket size transactions while debit cards are more frequently used for small-ticket size purchases at physical touchpoints.

 Value added services like EMI, BNPL are enabling customers to opt for high value products and services using their cards,” the report said.