Indian credit cardholders in September spent 76.9 billion rupees (US$1.5 billion or 1.1 billion euros), up 31.7% from 58.4 billion rupees during the same month last year, according to new data from the Reserve Bank of India.
The cardholders initiated 25.6 million credit card transactions, up 21.9% from 21 million, while the number of credit cards in circulation at the end of September fell 4.3%, to 17.6 million from 18.4 million a year earlier.
The banks are tightening underwriting criteria and issuing fewer cards, and this trend will grow as the Indian economy slows in line with trends globally, India-based banking analyst Mrinalini Manral tells PaymentsSource.
“They have targeted premium customers over the last year and shed risky accounts,” she says. “You can expect that trend to continue over to the next year.”
Meanwhile, debit card sales in September increased 37.6%, to 41.0 billion rupees from 29.8 billion rupees a year earlier. Debit card transaction volume increased 36.8%, to 26 million from 19 million, the central bank says.
Indian financial institutions had issued 251.9 million debit cards as of the end of September, up 23.6% from 203.8 million a year earlier.
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