With credit demand bouncing back in India, there is hope that consumer sentiment will turn positive. There is fierce competition among players as people have resumed eating out, shopping and traveling. This has led credit card spends to reach Rs 1.14 lakh crore at the end of May 2022 as increased incentives from banks boosted customer spends.

 ICICI Bank was slightly ahead of SBI Cards in transaction market share at the end of May 2022. HDFC Bank maintained a steady lead over everyone else, with a 27.7% market share in the same month. HDFC Bank processed a total of Rs 31.75 thousand crore, up 113% YoY and 8% MoM. ICICI Bank’s total transaction on credit cards also rose over the past few months. At the end of January, the bank had processed Rs 18.8 thousand crore, and this rose 16% to Rs 21.9 thousand crore at the end of May 2022. Despite the rise in transactions, ICICI Bank saw a decrease in market share from 21.4% to 19.2% in the same time period.

While HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank are ahead in transactions, their market share in "credit cards issued" is down, Axis Bank has gained ground here in the past few months. At the end of December 2021, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank had 162.7 lakh (22.9% market share) and 127.7 lakh credit cards issued (19.27% market share), respectively. This fell to 149.1 lakh (22.4% market share) and 107.2 lakh (17.35% market share), respectively at the end of May 2022. 

 The rise in transactions for HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank despite the market share decline indicates the differences in customer profile between banks. While banks issue as many cards as they can, eventually the real win is about having customers that make the most number of transactions. Right now HDFC Bank gets the cream, in terms of transaction value.