Credit card spends in January 23 at over Rs. 1 lakh crore
Credit card spends were above the Rs. 1-lakh crore mark for the 11 th consecutive month in January, touching Dr. 1.28-lakh crore during the month, according to RBI data.
Spends rose nearly 1 per cent on an already high base seen in December, when card spends stood at Rs. 1.26-lakh crore, led by a rise in e-commerce and online transactions. Year-on-year, spends were higher by around 45 per cent.
Credit card spends had touched a peak of Rs. 1.29-lakh crore in October 2022 amid rise in festival season-led transactions.
Online e-commerce sales comprised over 61 per cent of the card spends in January, followed by PoS (point of sale) transactions at 38 per cent and other transactions forming the rest. Spends were largely led by transactions pertaining to travel, tourism and shopping, said industry participants.
Most major credit card issuers such as ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and SBI Card saw a single-digit increase in spends; however, HDFC Bank saw a 1.3 per cent decline despite an increase in outstanding cards.
Even then, the private sector lender continued to maintain its leadership position in spends, with a market share of 28 per cent, followed by SBI Card, which had a market share of 19 per cent.
Net card additions for the month were at 12.6 lakh or 1.6 per cent, higher than 5.8 lakh in December. This took total outstanding credit cards to 8.2 crore at the end of January.
The addition in the number of cards was led by SBI Card, which saw a net increase of 3.3 lakh, followed by HDFC Bank seeing a rise of 2.2 lakh, Axis Bank of 1.4 lakh and ICICI Bank of 1.3 lakh on month.
