Report shows surge in credit, debit cards use

The current financial year has been a dynamic one for payments, with a significant growth seen across the board despite a sluggish economy.

On the issuance side, credit card issuance is back to growth after a long period of fall. On other hand, debit cards continue to grow aggressively at a pace seen in the past five years, said the report.

The credit card segment in India witnessed growth in this year after a four year period of sluggishness. Though it is still far from the peak of 2008, there has been an uptick in issuance from both private and public issuers and the base is expected to reach 19 million by the end of the current financial year.

According to the report, private sector banks remain the largest issuers, accounting for more than half the credit card base. Foreign banks have been slower than Indian banks in issuing cards, which led to slight erosion in their market share over the previous year.