ICICI BANK GAINED MORE THAN 1.3 MN CREDIT CARDS SINCE DEC

Since the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) ban on HDFC Bank on issuing new credit cards, the private lender and largest issuer of credit cards in India lost 558,545 cards until June 2021. Currently, according to the latest RBI data, HDFC Bank has 14.82 million credit cards in the market, against 15.38 million as of November 2020. ICICI Bank, on the other hand, was been the biggest gainer in the December-june period by adding more than 1.32 million credit cards -- taking its outstanding credit cards in the market to 11.03 million as of June 2021, against 9.71 million as of November 2020. During this period, SBI Cards gained 748,707 cards, taking its tally to 12.04 million and Axis Bank added 252,145 cards, taking its tally to 7.13 million.

Although HDFC Bank’s market share dropped from what was in November 2020, both in terms of outstanding cards and card spends, it remained the market leader in both aspects. As of June 2021, HDFC Bank’s market share in terms of outstanding cards stood at 23.6 per cent, while in terms of spends, it cornered a market share of 27.8 per cent. SBI Cards, with a 19.2 per cent market share in outstanding cards, was the second-largest player in that segment, while ICICI Bank had the second-biggest market share in terms of spends.