According to the latest data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), credit card spending surged by 27% year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to Rs 18.26 trillion in financial year 2023-24 (FY24) from nearly Rs 14 trillion in FY23.
Key Points:
i.In March 2024, credit card spending rose by nearly 10.07% to Rs 1.64 trillion from Rs 1.49 trillion in February 2024, attributed to financial year closures and festival sales during March.
ii.Total credit card transactions in March 2024 amounted to Rs 1.64 trillion, higher by 19.8% Y-o-Y and 10.2% on month.
- This includes Point of Sale (PoS) transactions rising to Rs 60,378 crore and e-commerce payments increasing to Rs 1.05 trillion from Rs 95,000 crore.
Top 4 credit card issuers lose Market Share in FY24
During FY24, the top four credit card issuer’s in India: HDFC Bank, SBI Card, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank, experienced a decrease in their market share, dropping to 71.98% in March 2024 from 74.79% in March 2023.
- This attributed to overall spending expansion and increased growth among mid-sized players, as per RBI data.
- The decline is both in terms of monthly card spends and total cards outstanding.
Credit Card Transactions:
i.HDFC Bank led in credit card transactions with Rs 43,471.29 crore in March 2024, 8.57% higher than Rs 40,288.51 crore in February 2024.
- Axis Bank recorded a growth of 8.05%, reaching Rs 18,941.31 crore, while ICICI Bank saw a 14.49% rise to Rs 30,733.11 crore.
- SBI Card‘s transactions rose by 7.32% to Rs 24,949.17 crore.
ii.The share of credit card spend of these four banks in March 2024 was 71.98% amounting to Rs 1,18,381 crore.
iii.The share of the next 10 issuers(ranked 5th to 14th): IndusInd Bank, RBL Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, American Express, IDFC First Bank, Yes Bank, Bank of Baroda, AU Small Finance Bank, Federal Bank and Standard Chartered Bank grew to 24.85% as at the end of FY24 as against 22.35% in FY23.
Credit Card Issuance:
i.The total number of credit cards issued in India reached 101 million in March 2024.
- HDFC Bank also led in card issuance at 20.59 million, followed by SBI Card (18.89 million), ICICI Bank (16.95 million), and Axis Bank (14.21 million).
ii.There were net card additions of 1.6 crore during FY24, of which these top 4 issuers accounted for 97.62 lakh cards.
- The top 4 issuers had a total of 7.06 crore cards-in-force as of March 2024, up from 6.09 crore in the previous year.
iii.Total number of cards outstanding stood at 10.18 crore at end of FY24, with net addition of 12.02 lakh cards seen in March 2024.
Recent Related News:
i.As of February 6, 2024, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has granted final approval to two fintech startups namely Juspay Technologies Private Limited(Juspay) and Decfin Tech Private Limited (Decfin) and a Software- as-a-Service(SaaS) provider Zoho Payment Technologies Private Limited (Zoho) to act as a Payment Aggregator (PA).
ii.RBI in exercise of powers conferred by Section 35B of the Banking Regulation (BR) Act, 1949, has increased the remuneration ceiling of Non Executive Directors (NEDs) of banks from Rs 20 lakh per annum to Rs 30 lakh with immediate effect.
About Reserve Bank of India (RBI):
Governor – Shaktikanta Das
Deputy Governors – Swaminathan Janakiraman, Michael Debabrata Patra, M. Rajeshwar Rao, T. Rabi Sankar
Establishment– 1st April 1935
Headquarters– Mumbai, Maharashtra
