Synopsis
Axis Bank added 63,446 cards in April, less than half its February tally. Kotak Mahindra Bank remained steady at 33,038 additions. “We are focused on growing the business and growing it with the right set of customers in a profitable way,” said ICICI Bank Group chief financial officer Anindya Banerjee. “We have been seeing reasonably steady new customer acquisition and would hope to see better numbers in terms of growth.”
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ET OnlineMUMBAI: ICICI Bank added the highest number of new credit cards among India’s top five issuers in April, signalling intensifying competition for cardholder market share, Reserve Bank of India data showed. ICICI Bank recorded 151,823 net new issuances, while SBI Cards came in second with 138,990 additions and HDFC Bank recovered strongly with 128,525 additions.
Axis Bank added 63,446 cards in April, less than half its February tally. Kotak Mahindra Bank remained steady at 33,038 additions.
“We are focused on growing the business and growing it with the right set of customers in a profitable way,” said ICICI Bank Group chief financial officer Anindya Banerjee. “We have been seeing reasonably steady new customer acquisition and would hope to see better numbers in terms of growth.”
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Beyond the top five credit card issuers, Federal Bank has emerged as the most compelling growth story in the mid-tier segment, with 101,835 net new cards in April. Its strategy of mining its existing customer base for card acquisitions appears to be paying off.
“The growth of the transactor segment is pretty robust because the bulk of the organic credit cards we issue are given to our existing customers,” said Virat Diwanji, head of consumer banking, Federal Bank. “The overall interest-earning book has also seen some growth, more on the transactor side rather than the revolver side.”
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At the other end of the spectrum, IndusInd Bank continued its sustained decline, shedding 22,214 cards. RBL Bank effectively flatlined, recording a net loss of 721 cards.
The individual bank numbers, however, need to be read against a backdrop of moderating industry momentum. Total net credit card additions slowed to about 802,000 in April from more than 929,000 in March and a six-month high of 1.05 million in February. Credit card spending increased just 6.5% year-on-year to Rs 1.97 lakh crore in April, pointing to declining per-card spending intensity even as the total card base hit a record 119.4 million.
