RBI data: Credit card spending exceeded Rs. 1.13 billion in May

May saw credit card spending reach an all-time high of $1.14 trillion, indicating that the retail sector is doing well. According to Reserve Bank of India data, credit card spending increased 118 percent annually and 8 percent monthly as a result of strong e-commerce spending, high-value travel and tourism spending, and discretionary purchases.

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KEY POINTS:

• Despite pressures from inflation and rising interest rates, credit card spending in May remained significantly higher than $1 trillion. The total amount spent on credit cards in May was $1.13 trillion, up from $1.05 trillion in April and $52,200 crore in May of the previous year.
• The biggest incremental rise in credit card spending was recorded by Indusind Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank, at 17% and 15%, respectively. All other companies experienced growth in the 4–9% range. American Express, on the other hand, experienced a 2% month-over-month fall.
• The system’s overall number of active credit cards increased by 23.2 percent annually to 76.9 million in May 2022, the most in the previous 27 months.
• With 38,000 new cards added in the same month, HDFC bank had the highest monthly incremental card addition rate. Since April, the bank has noticed an increase in the marketshare of credit card expenditures.
• In May, the bank’s market share for credit card purchases was 27.7% compared to 27.6% in April and 26.6 % in March.

After the RBI relaxed the moratorium on new credit card issuances in August of last year, HDFC Bank launched 1 million new credit cards and relaunched three credit cards, which contributed to their marketshare increase. On the other side, despite adding a lot of cards in May, Axis Bank reported a decline in marketshare in spending.