Credit card spend hits new high in July at Rs 1.44 trillion: RBI data

Indians spent a record Rs 1.44 trillion in July via credit cards, breaking the previous record of Rs 1.4 trillion in May. Credit card spend had slipped to Rs 1.37 trillion in June. The banking industry added about 1.19 million credit cards in July, taking the outstanding credit card base to 89.87 million compared to 88.68 million in the previous month. 

According to latest data released by the Reserve Bank of India, HDFC Bank maintained its leadership position with 18.54 million cards, followed by SBI Card at 17.55 million, ICICI Bank at 14.98 million, and Axis Bank at 12.74 million.

The data showed that e-commerce payments cornered 65.71 per cent of the total credit card spend in July, with PoS (point-of-sale) transactions accounting for 34.28 per cent.