India adds 1.26 million credit cards in July as spending rises; HDFC, SBI lead the way
Credit-card spending rose 7.4% year-on-year and 3.4% month-on-month to ₹2.08 lakh crore. Issuers added 11 million cards over the past year, lifting the outstanding base 9.9% to 122.9 million. Sequential additions accelerated from 1.13 million cards in June.
Transaction volumes increased 24.5% year-on-year to 605.3 million, more than three times the growth in expenditure. Consequently, the average value per transaction declined nearly 14% to about ₹3,440 from ₹3,987, indicating that cards were being used more frequently for smaller-value payments.
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HDFC Bank led July additions with 230,067 cards, up from 163,511 in June. SBI Card ranked second with 183,076 additions, followed by ICICI Bank with 170,156. Federal Bank added 108,492 cards, ahead of IDFC First Bank‘s 82,723. Axis Bank added 70,091 cards, Kotak Mahindra Bank 64,617 and RBL Bank 26,915.
IndusInd Bank was the only large issuer to report a contraction, reducing its portfolio by 9,397 cards after a decline of 10,890 in June.
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“The continued growth in cards-in-force and stronger card additions indicate steady underlying demand and healthy expansion in the industry’s customer base,” said Sweta Padhi, analyst at IDBI Capital.
Over the past year, HDFC Bank added 2.1 million cards, the highest among issuers, followed by ICICI Bank with 1.64 million and SBI Card with 1.50 million.
Federal Bank added 1.20 million cards, surpassing Axis Bank’s 1.08 million, while IDFC First Bank added 1.03 million.
“Credit card spending remained resilient, holding broadly above the ₹2 lakh crore mark. The industry also continued to add customers at a healthy pace, indicating that penetration and adoption trends remain intact, reflecting sustained consumer adoption. PSBs continued to gain share in overall credit card spending,” said Saurabh Bhalerao, associate director, BFSI research, at CareEdge Ratings.
Public-sector banks’ aggregate card spending rose 22% year-on-year to ₹46,159 crore, increasing their share of industry expenditure by about 265 basis points to 22.2%.
Private-sector banks’ spending grew a more modest 2.8% to ₹1.50 lakh crore, reducing their share by about 321 basis points to 72.1%.
