New credit card issuances plunge 50% in Oct to 7.8L as against 16L a year ago

THE credit card industry saw a sharp 50% year-on-year decline in new card issuances to a meagre 7.8 lakh in October as against 16 lakh cards issued in the same month last year.

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In November 2023, the Reserve Bank, fearing a bubble build-up in the unsecured loans segment, which has been growing at three times the other loans for nearly two years, asked credit card issuing banks to set aside 25 percentage points more money as risk capital, taking the total to 150%.

Still, banks continued to aggressively push credit cards and since the second quarter almost all lenders have begun to report higher delinquencies. The worst affected ones are Kotak Mahindra Bank, RBL Bank, and Axis Bank, among others.