SBI Card says demonetization pushes up spends by 30%

The second largest credit card player SBI Card said, after demonetization, the total spends on its cards have increased by 25-30%, despite fall in certain segments like fuel, jewellery and other discretionary spending.

"Total spending on our cards increased post-demonetization by 25-30%. But in some categories like fuel, jewellery and discretionary spending came down," SBI Card chief executive Vijay Jasuja told reporters here.

SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya chipped in saying pre-demonetization SBI Cards were getting 65% of transactions on cards and after demonetization it has been 85%. So, in a span of 50 days we have seen a rise of 50%.

In November, spends had actually declined but the number of transactions went up. But then, subsequently in December it picked up again as there was 35-50% increase in number of transactions during the month, he added.

With a little over 15% market share, SBI Card is the second largest player in the 27.3 million credit cards market.

Jasuja said he has 4.75 million credit card users.

He said in December alone, SBI Card issued 1,05,000 new cards.

Normally, 35-40% is the attrition. So, net- addition was 65,000 in December.

In the past few months, the company was adding upwards of 1,00,000 cards per month. One year back it was around 65,000 and two years ago it was 40-45,000 a month. In the past two months consistently they have crossed 1,00,000, he added.

State Bank of India