Credit card swipes surge to new peaks

Credit card spends increased by more than 50% on-month in October, supported by the festive season euphoria, The Economic Times reported on Tuesday. The rally continued into the early days of November.

In September alone, credit card spends have increased by more than Rs 80,000 crore and is expected to cross the record highs in October and November.

Data from Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed that the overall credit card outstanding was at Rs 1.1 lakh crore. The September credit cards surpassed the monthly peak spends in March of Rs 72,300 crore.

HDFC Bank largest acquirer

Estimates from the central bank showed that the banking system reported net additions of almost 1.1 million credit cards in September, which is more than twice the addition in July taking the total credit card outstanding to 65 million. HDFC Bank was the largest acquirer with 2,44,000 additions, followed by ICICI Bank at 2,34,000 lakh new cards. Axis Bank added over 2,00,000 cards, while SBI added 1,75,000 new cards.

Kotak Mahindra Bank showed the highest growth in credit card spends for September at 27%, followed by ICICI Bank and IndusInd Bank at 13% each.

Axis Bank reported that spending grew 50% and more than 75% on an annual basis. It said that the new peak surpassed the pre-Covid levels, primarily led by festive offers covering a wide range of categoreis like lifestyle, durables, travel and dinning.

According to ICICI Securities, credit card spends have increased sequentially and the traction is evident from the record absolute spends and the ratio of credit card to debit card, which stands at 1.28x.