Synopsis

The additions were led, once again, by the country's largest issuers. HDFC Bank topped the list, adding 163,000 net new credit cards and edging past SBI Cards, which added 162,000. ICICI Bank added 151,000 cards, while Federal Bank continued its strong momentum with 101,000 net new additions.

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MUMBAI: Credit card issuance in India surged to its strongest pace in more than two years in June 2026, according to latest data released by the Reserve Bank of India. Banks added a net 1.14 million credit cards in June, taking the industry's total cards-in-force to 121.5 million. That is the highest monthly net addition since December 2023, when issuers added a record 1.9 million cards in a single month, before the RBI's higher risk-weight rules on unsecured lending, effective November 2023, forced a broad slowdown in issuance through FY25 and into FY26.

Spending also remained above Rs 2 lakh crore for the second straight month. Total credit card spending at Rs 2.01 lakh crore saw a modest 0.5% dip from May's Rs 2.02 lakh crore but rose 9.8% from Rs 1.83 lakh crore a year earlier.

The additions were led, once again, by the country's largest issuers. HDFC Bank topped the list, adding 163,000 net new credit cards and edging past SBI Cards, which added 162,000. ICICI Bank added 151,000 cards, while Federal Bank continued its strong momentum with 101,000 net new additions.

"We are in the process of acquiring the Standard Chartered India credit card portfolio, and we remain confident of completing the integration before the end of this calendar year," said Federal Bank managing director and chief executive KVS Manian. "Cards, and especially our organic, non-co-branded cards, are a segment we have been building deliberately, and this accelerates that."

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IDFC First Bank added 91,000 cards, while the momentum cooled at Axis Bank, where the number rose by 48,636. Kotak Mahindra Bank added 31,386. RBL Bank turned a corner, flipping from a net loss of 6,116 cards in May to a gain of 29,270 in June, a sign that whatever portfolio clean-up was weighing on its numbers may now be behind it.

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"Credit card reversals have continued, the cards book is now also not being looked at as only cards; we are experimenting with bundled product propositions," said Jaideep Iyer, executive director, RBL Bank. "We will also look at a far more aggressive opportunity to look at cards through our branches and through our salary account customers, which is gaining traction separately."

Spending patterns, broken down by issuer, show a market still overwhelmingly concentrated among four names. HDFC Bank alone accounted for roughly Rs 59,432 crore of June's spends, close to 29.5% of the industry total, followed by SBI Cards at around Rs 41,077 crore with an about 20.4% share.