ICICI Bank gains at HDFC Bank's expense in credit cards amid RBI ban

The credit card market is set for a fresh bout of competition between the top three players – HDFC Bank, SBI Card and ICICI Bank after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) partially lifted the ban on HDFC Bank, allowing it to issue new credit cards. Eight months ago, the banking regulator had barred the country's largest private sector lender to sell new credit cards after repeated instances of technological outages.

While the HDFC Bank's existing credit card users were not impacted by the RBI ban, rivals ICICI Bank and SBI Cards seized the opportunity to cut the gap with the market leader in the segment.

As of November 2020, HDFC Bank’s share in the credit card segment was 25.6 percent. Following the ban, it lost a market share of 199 basis points between November 2020 and June 2021 although the share of HDFC Bank is still highest at 23.61 percent. The growth in new customer acquisition during the period was negative at 3.63 percent, shows data sourced from the RBI. As of June 2021, HDFC Bank still has over 1.48 crore credit card customers.