Indian banks are increasing their credit card issuance for the first time since the financial crisis started five years go.
From the Hindustan Times:
Card issuance by banks and financial institution grew by 11% to 19.6 million in 2012-13 according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data. From the peak 27.55 million in 2007-08, card issuance had fallen to 17.65 million in 2011-12.
The credit card market in India is one of the most underdeveloped in all major developed and developing markets. There are less than 20 million credit cards in circulation, which represents a penetration rate of about 1.7% among the country’s 1.2 billion population.
Existing credit cardholders appear to be less affected by the financial crisis as credit card spending continued to grow rapidly during the same period, albeit from a still very small base.
Unlike the decline in the number of cards issuance, spending through credit cards continued to increase in the past five years. It rose 29% to Rs. 124,393 crore in 2012-13 from Rs. 96613 crore in previous fiscal.
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