Banks Report Over 15% Growth in New Credit Card Additions: RBI Data

According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Indian banks added over 920,000 new credit cards in August 2024, following the addition of 755,000 cards in July. This brings the total number of credit cards in circulation to 105.5 million. Year-over-year, credit card additions have grown by 15.6%, with a 0.9% increase compared to the previous month.

HDFC Bank led the credit card market by adding 2.41 lakh new cards in August, bringing its total to 2.19 crore. In July alone, it added nearly 4 lakh cards. ICICI Bank followed, adding 1.45 lakh cards, raising its total to over 1.75 crore. Axis Bank and SBI Cards contributed 1.27 lakh and 1.1 lakh cards, respectively.

However, Kotak Mahindra Bank faced stagnation in its credit card portfolio due to an RBI ban. Its total number of active cards decreased by 61,191, falling to 54.13 lakh in August. The RBI had earlier halted the bank’s issuance of new cards after the bank failed to address gaps in its IT systems, leading to frequent outages.

In terms of spending, credit card transactions saw a slight decline. Total spending fell by 2.6%, reaching Rs 1.69 lakh crore in August, down from Rs 1.73 lakh crore in July. This marks a slowdown from the 8.7% growth seen in the previous month. The RBI has urged caution in the unsecured lending segment, raising risk weights on consumer loans and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs).