With card payment on the rise, the total number of cards in circulation breached the one billion mark in 2021. This was revealed by Worldline India in its annual Digital Payments Report. The report analyses transactions available in public databases as well as transactions processed by Worldline India in CY 2021.
Out of the total cards in circulation, credit cards represented a 7 percent market share, while debit cards accounted for 93 percent market share. Private sector banks issued the highest number of credit cards - 67 percent - while public sector banks accounted for 24 percent, the report said.
HDFC bank, SBI and ICICI bank were the top banks to issue credit cards. HDFC Bank emerged as top credit card issuer as soon as the RBI lifted the ban pertaining to issuing new credit cards after 8 months.
Outstanding credit cards increased by 14 percent from 60.39 million in December 2020 to 68.95 million in December 2021 while outstanding debit cards increased by 6 percent from 886.41 million to 937.75 million during the same period. It is, however, not clear how many of these cards, particularly debit, are active and whether they are being used for payments and not cash withdrawals, the report said.
October and December were the months with highest number of transactions in volume and value owing to the festive quarter and relaxations in COVID-19 restrictions across the country.
In the online space, e-commerce, gaming, utility and financial services contributed to over 87 per cent transaction in terms of volume and 41 per cent in value in 2021, the report said.
Deepak Chandnani, Managing Director, Worldline South Asia & Middle East said, "Consumers are embracing digital payments like never before. While the industry has been successful in creating habit-forming bouquet of e-payment options like UPI, Cards, PPIs and emerging payment modes like Bharat BillPay, NETC FAST tags among others, the acceptance infrastructure is now gradually sprouting."
Worldline is a European payments and transactional services company, which has offices in more than 50 countries.
