Credit card transactions decline by over 21 per cent in February amid Covid-19 impact

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the issuance of new credit cards has come virtually to a standstill and fell around 47 per cent on year-on-year basis and over 21 per cent on month-on-month basis, the Reserve Bank of India data shows.   

People were seen spending less via credit cards amidst low income and increased inflation due to muted economic growth in the country 

Around 5.5 lakh new credit cards were issued in the month of February, the central bank mentioned in the data. Similarly, ICICI Bank topped the list of private sector banks in the issuance of new credit cards and that is around 36 per cent new cards, the RBI data showed.  

In the public sector bank list, India’s biggest lender State Bank of India’s total number of credit cards issued outstanding (after adjusting the number of cards withdrawn/cancelled) in the month of February stands at 1.17 crore.  

In the private-sector lenders, HDFC Bank’s total number of credit cards issued outstanding in the month of February is at 1.5 crore. Followed by ICICI Bank with 1.03 crore outstanding credit cards and Axis Bank with over 70 lakh.  

Whereas, other private lenders such as IndusInd Bank (1506654), Kotak Mahindra Bank (2379210), Yes Bank (914879), Citi Bank (2645784) and Standard Chartered Bank (1463859) has the total number of credit cards issued outstanding in the month of February.