Credit card spends hit ₹2 trillion for the second straight month in June | Finance News
Credit card spends hit the ₹2 trillion mark in June again, driven by HDFC Bank and SBI Card, even if some of the large private banks saw a decline over May, according to the latest data released by the Reserve Bank of India.
Overall credit card spends rose 9.8 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to ₹2.01 trillion in June. Overall spending was ₹2.02 trillion in May.
HDFC Bank, the country’s biggest credit card issuer, posted a 16.2 per cent Y-o-Y increase in spending to ₹59,432 crore. In contrast, ICICI Bank’s card spends fell 5.2 per cent Y-o-Y to ₹31,410.9 crore, while Axis Bank recorded a modest 1.4 per cent increase to ₹22,174.8 crore.
On the other hand, SBI Card reported a 34.4 per cent Y-o-Y jump to ₹41,077 crore.
“Large private-sector banks have seen around 6 per cent Y-o-Y growth, while other private-sector banks are down 4 per cent. The industry’s overall 10 per cent growth appears to be driven by public-sector banks,” said Saurabh Bhalerao, director, CareEdge Ratings.
He added that private banks remain cautious because of concerns around unsecured lending and asset quality. Meanwhile, public-sector banks are benefitting from higher adoption of UPI-linked credit, particularly through RuPay credit cards, where they have a stronger issuance franchise, helping drive higher spending.
The banking sector’s outstanding credit card base grew 0.95 per cent M-o-M and 9.36 per cent Y-o-Y to 121.6 million cards.
