HDFC Bank drives up credit card use

Mumbai: HDFC Bank is looking to double the penetration of credit cards among its customer base over the next three years.

The lender, which is already the country's largest issuer had around 1.06 crore outstanding credit cards as of March this year. This comprises close to 25 per cent of its base of four crore customers.

The bank is planning to grow this number to 50 per cent over the next three years as it sees a significant upside in cross-selling opportunities to its existing customers.

This comes even as its customer base not only grows, but the bank also steps up its reach, particularly in non top 20 geographies in the country.

HDFC Bank's growth plans in the highly competitive credit card segment were shared by its top brass at an analyst meet recently. Speaking to analysts, Parag Rao, Country Head - Card Payment Products, Merchant Acquiring Services and Marketing - pointed out that more avenues of customer acquisition are opening up for the bank as the "digitisation" of consumption takes place and people conduct more e-commerce transactions or use non-cash modes for payment.

"Credit card customers currently comprise around 25 per cent of the bank's 42 million customer base. Management aims to increase this penetration to around 50 per cent of its current customer base over the next three years, even as it is witnessing steady growth in customer accounts every year," analysts at Motilal Oswal said in a report.

According to RBI data, transactions in volume terms by its credit card customers stood at 3.62 crore in March this year. This comprised around 29 per cent of the total volume of 12.8 crore done during the month. In value terms, this stood at Rs 12,399 crore. of a total of Rs 44,677 crore.

Rao said while 80 per cent of transactions done by its credit card customers happened in the top 10 towns around three years ago, this has declined to around 65 per cent.

The bank has also been witnessing a jump in the number of its credit card customers using the EMI facility. This has doubled from 15 per cent to more than 30 per cent over a two-year period. He further disclosed that the top three categories of spends include apparel, dining and travel at the industry level. However, other categories like utility payments have also risen.

HDFC Bank is also taking various steps in the merchant acquisition front.