Lenders Applaud as Credit Card Transactions Reach New Heights

During March, the monthly peak transactions stood at Rs 72,300 crore; the credit card spending in September crossed Rs 80,000 crore. As per the data provided by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), on the whole, credit card outstanding continued to remain stable at Rs 1.1 lakh crore.

Industry-wide information shows that more than Rs 80,000 crore worth of credit card spending were recorded in September alone. There is anticipation that this record also will be broken in October and November. Lenders are elated to have had an exceptional festive season, and the transactions have crossed the pre-COVID numbers. The consistent increase in credit card transactions is primarily steered by large-scale festive discounts covering various categories such as durables, lifestyle, dining, and travel.

Traction in credit card transactions is obvious from the record-breaking card spendings, and the ratio between credit card and debit card spendings is at 1.28x. As per RBI estimates, the banking system recorded net additions of almost 1.1 million credit cards in September, nearly double the card additions in July, resulting in 65 million worth of overall credit card outstanding.

With 244,000 additions, HDFC bank was the biggest acquirer, followed by ICICI bank with about 234,000 lakh new card additions. Axis bank recorded more than 200,000 additions, while SBI witnessed 175,000 new card additions. Compared to July, Kotak Mahindra bank recorded a 27% growth in credit card transactions in September, the highest, followed by IndusInd Bank and ICICI Bank at 13% each.

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