The big plastic bonanza: Credit cards business is booming like never before

Defying the after-effects of pandemic-related pay cuts and job losses, the credit cards business is booming like never before

The Indian middle class appears to be on a spending binge. Credit card spends topped Rs 1.16 trillion in July, a 6.5 per cent growth month-on-month and 54 per cent year-on-year. Spends have stood at Rs 1 trillion for five running months now. Fresh card issuances were at 1.53 million in July and crossed the 80-million mark. HDFC Bank led the issuer pack with 344,364 credit cards added in July and its base stood at 17.94 million, followed by Axis Bank with 227,614 cards (9.93 million cards), and SBI Cards with 218,933 cards (14.5 million).

These run rates on card