reserve Bank of India The data showed that the total number of credit cards in July stood at around 80 million.
The month of August saw a sharp decline in HDFC bankK credit cards applied – the number declined by 1.5 million or 8% in one month. For axis BankThe count dropped by 1 million cards, a 10% drop from July.
The decline in the number of active credit cards is mainly due to the new RBI rule, which came into effect in July.
Suresh Ganapathy, associate director, Macquarie Capital, said, “The new rule requires deactivation of inactive cards for 365 days, which worsens the market share picture (on number of cards), as different players apply it with lag. We do. So, in the interim, we will not have a clear picture on the market shares. It should affect other players like SBI Card, ICICI Bank Also with a gap.”
SBI Cards market share rose to 19.2% based on the number of cards implemented in August 2022, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank saw their market share fall from 22.4% and 15.5% in July to 21% and 14.7% respectively. august.
The central bank rule states that if the credit card has not been used for more than a year, the process of closure of the card will be initiated after informing the cardholder. If no response is received from the Cardholder within 30 days, the Card Account will be closed subject to payment of all dues by the Card Issuer.
Experts say that card closures due to inactivity of customers are likely to lead to further deterioration of the cards.
“Closing the cards due to inactivity of the customers will change the total number of cards outstanding and hence the current numbers as disclosed may undergo some further adjustments,” it said. ICICI Securities Analyst Anshuman Deb.