Credit card spends rose 47% year-on-year (y-o-y) to Rs 14 trillion in FY23, driven by a rise in e-commerce and point-of-sale transactions, according to data from Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
In March, credit card spends hit an all-time high of Rs 1.37 trillion, with customers increasingly using cards for both discretionary and non-discretionary expenditure. Spends surpassed the Rs 1 trillion-mark for the 13th straight month in March. Those on e-commerce platforms comprised 63% of overall transactions.
Around 11.67 million cards were added in 2022-23, slightly higher than the 11.15 million additions in 2021-22. Outstanding credit cards stood at Rs 8.5 crore as on March 31, higher than Rs 8.3 crore as on February 28.
Among large players, Axis Bank saw a 54% month-on-month (m-o-m) rise in spends in March, followed by ICICI Bank with an increase of more than 20%. HDFC Bank’s spends rose 14% m-o-m and those of SBI Card and Payment Services’ 11%.
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Axis Bank’s outstanding credit cards rose to 12.3 million as on March 31 from 12 million as on February 28. The expansion in the bank’s credit base was aided by the bank’s acquisition of Citi Bank’s credit card portfolio.
SBI Card’s outstanding credit cards rose to 16.8 million as on March 31 from 16.5 million as on February 28, while those of HDFC Bank rose to 17.5 million from 17.3 million.