HDFC Bank partly recoups market share in credit card spends lost to embargo

RBI data shows that the bank has 28.4% market share in spends as of July, up 190 bps since last August. Pre-embargo, its share was 30.67%

The country’s largest credit issuer, HDFC Bank, has regained a large chunk of the market share in credit card spends that it had lost after an embargo was imposed on it for issuing new credit cards. The ban was subsequently lifted by the Reserve Bank of India in August 2021.

The latest RBI data shows that HDFC Bank has 28.4 per cent market share in spends as of July 2022, up 190 basis points since last August. 

Pre-embargo, HDFC Bank’s market share was 30.67 per cent. While it has recouped some of the market share it lost in card spends, the bank has some distance to cover when it comes to cards-in-force market share. 

Pre-embargo HDFC Bank’s market share of cards in force was 25.59 per cent. This dropped to 23.1 per cent last August, and now stands at 22.4 per cent. 

The RBI had imposed an embargo on the bank for issuing new cards in December 2020 for the repeated tech glitches the bank was suffering. The curb was lifted in August 2021 after RBI was satisfied with the work put in by the bank to address the issues it was facing. 

The biggest gainer during this period was ICICI Bank, which added over four million credit cards between November 2020 and July 2022, followed by SBI Card (3.24 million cards), and Axis Bank (3.05 million cards). 

During this period, HDFC Bank added 2.56 million cards. However, after the embargo was lifted, HDFC Bank began topping the charts on new card issuances,  with 3.21 million cards. It was followed by Axis Bank (2.62 million cards), ICICI Bank (2.27 million cards), and SBI Card (2.13 million cards).