Lenders ET suggested that they have had a bumper festive season, surpassing the pre-Covid numbers.
“Since the gradual unlocking there has been a steady increase in credit card spend, which saw a new peak in October,” said Sanjeev Moghe, head of cards and payments. axis Bank. “On a month-on-month basis, spending grew by 50% and 75%+ on an annual basis. This is a new peak, with numbers surpassing pre-Covid levels, mainly due to massive celebrations. The proposals are led to cover a wide gamut of categories such as lifestyle, durables, travel and food.”
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showed that the total credit card dues remained stagnant at ₹1.1 lakh crore. September credit card spend crosses ₹80,000 crore, surpassing monthly peak spend of ₹72,300 crore in March.
Anshuman Deb, ICICI Securities said, “Credit card spends have grown by 34% sequentially (in September) and the trends for the first week of October and November are very strong.” “The spending traction record is evident from the ratio of absolute spend and credit card to debit card spend, which is 1.28x. October is likely to be 15-18% better than September, while the first week of November has a better run rate. It is October.”
RBI estimates showed that the banking system reported a net increase of around 1.1 million Credit Card In September, the addition more than doubled in July, taking total credit card balances to 65 million. HDFC Bank was the largest acquirer with 244,000 additions, followed by ICICI Bank with 234,000 lakh new cards. Axis Bank added over 200,000 cards, while SBI Cards added 175,000 new credit cards.
Kotak Mahindra Bank reported the highest growth of 27% in credit card spends in September as compared to July, followed by ICICI Bank and IndusInd Bank with 13% each.
Ambuj Chandana, President-Consumer Property, Kotak Mahindra Bank said, “We are seeing an increase in credit card spending on account of shopping and travel during the festive season, and the momentum is expected to continue over the next few months.”