travelwith.cc

The RBI desk

Who is winning India's credit-card market?

Once a month the Reserve Bank publishes what every Indian bank's card portfolio actually did — cards in force, and the rupees swiped at a terminal versus typed into a checkout. It is the number every business story quotes and nobody renders. Here it is, 10 months deep.

where these numbers come from fold that back up

This is the market. The board is the opinion about which of these cards is worth carrying.

July 2026 · Reserve Bank of India, Bankwise ATM/POS/Card Statistics · read 2026-08-29 · the release

the board · online vs the terminal · every month, and its file

12,28,57,894

credit cards in force

₹2,08,186 cr

spent on them, in the month

HDFC Bank

biggest book — 2,69,76,915 cards

64%

of that spend was online

40 of India's 63 scheduled banks issue a credit card at all. HDFC Bank holds the most of them (22.0% of every card in the country), and leads on spend too. India added 12,67,062 cards between June 2026 and July 2026.

  • SBI Card has no row of its own. RBI reports it inside State Bank of India, and never says so. We attribute that row to SBI Card because its 2,27,64,623 cards match SBI Card's own disclosed cards-in-force, and no other public-sector bank comes within an order of magnitude — a derived claim, not RBI's. It is marked ◇ in the board below.
  • These figures move after publication. RBI reissues months marked "(Revised)" — 6 of the 10 here are restatements. Every figure on this page is re-fetched from RBI rather than frozen, and RBI's own footnote on July 2026 reads: The data is provisional.

Every issuer with a credit-card book

July 2026. Cards outstanding at month end; spend is PoS plus online plus RBI's mail/tele-order residual — cash withdrawn on a credit card is excluded, because a cash advance is a loan and not a purchase. Trend runs over the 10 months on file (October 2025 – July 2026).

Issuer Cards Share Spend Per card Online Trend
HDFC Bank Private sector 2,69,76,915 22.0% ₹60,218 cr ₹22,322 66% 2,54,29,466 → 2,69,76,915 cards over 10 months
State Bank of India ◇ Public sector 2,27,64,623 18.5% ₹39,592 cr ₹17,392 67% 2,16,29,678 → 2,27,64,623 cards over 10 months
ICICI Bank Private sector 1,96,92,767 16.0% ₹34,026 cr ₹17,278 73% 1,84,76,537 → 1,96,92,767 cards over 10 months
Axis Bank Private sector 1,62,61,034 13.2% ₹23,825 cr ₹14,651 54% 1,55,04,019 → 1,62,61,034 cards over 10 months
IDFC First Bank Private sector 48,91,825 4.0% ₹4,956 cr ₹10,130 41% 41,41,804 → 48,91,825 cards over 10 months
Kotak Mahindra Bank Private sector 48,47,682 3.9% ₹6,776 cr ₹13,979 52% 45,54,468 → 48,47,682 cards over 10 months
RBL Bank Private sector 46,75,383 3.8% ₹7,346 cr ₹15,711 64% 45,65,378 → 46,75,383 cards over 10 months
Bank of Baroda Public sector 32,76,029 2.7% ₹3,732 cr ₹11,391 47% 29,92,464 → 32,76,029 cards over 10 months
YES Bank Private sector 30,38,937 2.5% ₹4,201 cr ₹13,824 33% 26,85,768 → 30,38,937 cards over 10 months
IndusInd Bank Private sector 29,72,558 2.4% ₹4,820 cr ₹16,214 66% 31,78,907 → 29,72,558 cards over 10 months
Federal Bank Private sector 26,42,312 2.2% ₹2,847 cr ₹10,775 60% 17,13,834 → 26,42,312 cards over 10 months
American Express Banking Corporation Foreign 13,05,099 1.1% ₹6,148 cr ₹47,104 73% 13,47,687 → 13,05,099 cards over 10 months
Canara Bank Public sector 12,07,152 1.0% ₹810 cr ₹6,710 41% 10,65,198 → 12,07,152 cards over 10 months
AU Small Finance Bank Small finance 10,96,879 0.9% ₹1,297 cr ₹11,825 67% 9,50,337 → 10,96,879 cards over 10 months
Punjab National Bank Public sector 10,13,438 0.8% ₹889 cr ₹8,775 79% 6,67,506 → 10,13,438 cards over 10 months
HSBC Foreign 9,87,898 0.8% ₹2,014 cr ₹20,390 70% 9,54,431 → 9,87,898 cards over 10 months
SBM Bank India Foreign 7,93,363 0.6% ₹53 cr ₹672 72% 7,74,149 → 7,93,363 cards over 10 months
Standard Chartered Bank Foreign 5,70,688 0.5% ₹727 cr ₹12,741 64% 7,37,801 → 5,70,688 cards over 10 months
Union Bank of India Public sector 5,07,530 0.4% ₹616 cr ₹12,145 63% 4,69,972 → 5,07,530 cards over 10 months
slice Small Finance Bank Small finance 4,25,924 0.3% ₹405 cr ₹9,508 33% 26,257 → 4,25,924 cards over 10 months
the other 20 issuers, down to the smallest book →
Issuer Cards Share Spend Per card Online Trend
Unity Small Finance Bank Small finance 3,76,454 0.3% ₹82 cr ₹2,166 71% 75,801 → 3,76,454 cards over 10 months
Utkarsh Small Finance Bank Small finance 3,51,887 0.3% ₹117 cr ₹3,315 9% 2,19,546 → 3,51,887 cards over 10 months
South Indian Bank Private sector 3,31,462 0.3% ₹476 cr ₹14,355 59% 3,58,922 → 3,31,462 cards over 10 months
DBS India Bank Foreign 3,05,836 0.2% ₹346 cr ₹11,313 55% 4,08,530 → 3,05,836 cards over 10 months
Citi Bank Foreign 2,79,530 0.2% ₹557 cr ₹19,939 78% 2,56,388 → 2,79,530 cards over 10 months
Indian Bank Public sector 2,65,277 0.2% ₹165 cr ₹6,206 52% 2,71,950 → 2,65,277 cards over 10 months
CSB Bank Private sector 1,89,594 0.2% ₹239 cr ₹12,608 76% 1,76,011 → 1,89,594 cards over 10 months
Indian Overseas Bank Public sector 1,88,124 0.2% ₹185 cr ₹9,827 20% 1,05,681 → 1,88,124 cards over 10 months
Jammu and Kashmir Bank Private sector 1,86,686 0.2% ₹236 cr ₹12,639 17% 1,39,778 → 1,86,686 cards over 10 months
Bank of India Public sector 1,37,334 0.1% ₹170 cr ₹12,390 66% 89,273 → 1,37,334 cards over 10 months
City Union Bank Private sector 59,731 0.0% ₹73 cr ₹12,140 55% 55,517 → 59,731 cards over 10 months
Suryoday Small Finance Bank Small finance 54,272 0.0% ₹9 cr ₹1,568 67% 11,057 → 54,272 cards over 10 months
IDBI Bank Private sector 51,004 0.0% ₹73 cr ₹14,379 50% 45,542 → 51,004 cards over 10 months
DCB Bank Private sector 32,682 0.0% ₹10 cr ₹3,068 46% 1,176 → 32,682 cards over 10 months
Equitas Small Finance Bank Small finance 27,753 0.0% ₹63 cr ₹22,840 34% 5,090 → 27,753 cards over 10 months
Bandhan Bank Private sector 24,993 0.0% ₹18 cr ₹7,080 33% 6 → 24,993 cards over 10 months
Tamilnad Mercantile Bank Private sector 17,968 0.0% ₹27 cr ₹14,843 34% 18,927 → 17,968 cards over 10 months
Dhanalaxmi Bank Private sector 12,354 0.0% ₹8 cr ₹6,466 35% 14,539 → 12,354 cards over 10 months
Karur Vysya Bank Private sector 8,879 0.0% ₹26 cr ₹28,977 45% 9,900 → 8,879 cards over 10 months
ESAF Small Finance Bank Small finance 8,038 0.0% ₹10 cr ₹13,004 83% 4,270 → 8,038 cards over 10 months

Online versus the terminal — the split nobody charts

Share of each issuer's own card spend that happened at an online checkout rather than a physical PoS terminal, July 2026. Issuers below ₹100 crore of monthly spend are left out: at that size the fraction is a fact about a few thousand transactions, not about a strategy.

Read it as a business model, not a scoreboard. A book that lives online is a book of co-brands, subscriptions and checkout offers; a book that lives at the terminal is fuel, groceries and restaurants. Nationally the split is 64% online.

The 23 banks RBI lists that issue no credit cards

RBI's release covers 63 entities. These report a flat zero down every credit-card column in July 2026 — some never launched a card, some sold the book (Deutsche Bank's went to IndusInd) and some wound it down. A zero here is RBI's figure, not a gap in ours.

Bank of Maharashtra · Central Bank of India · Punjab and Sind Bank · UCO Bank · Karnataka Bank · Nainital Bank · Bank of America · Bank of Bahrain & Kuwait B.S.C. · Barclays Bank PLC · Deutsche Bank · Doha Bank Q.P.S.C. · KEB Hana Bank · Kookmin Bank · Woori Bank · Airtel Payments Bank · Fino Payments Bank · India Post Payments Bank · Jio Payments Bank · NSDL Payments Bank · Capital Small Finance Bank · Jana Small Finance Bank · Shivalik Small Finance Bank · Ujjivan Small Finance Bank

What these numbers are, exactly

Cards in force
RBI's own definition: "total number of credit cards issued outstanding (after adjusting the number of cards withdrawn/cancelled)", at month end. It counts CARDS, not customers — a holder with three cards from one bank is three.
Spend
PoS + online/e-commerce + RBI's "other" bucket (mail-order and tele-order). RBI publishes value in ₹'000; we convert to crore. Cash withdrawal on a credit card is a separate column and we never add it to spend — it is borrowing, and counting it would flatter every issuer that lends on plastic.
Per card
The month's spend divided by cards in force. It separates a transactor book from a dormant one, and it is why an issuer with a fifth of the cards can be worth more per card.
Issuer links
We map 43 RBI entities onto issuers this desk carries, by name and explicitly — never by similarity, which would have been wrong in both directions here: RBI spells "Dhanalaxmi" where the bank spells Dhanlaxmi, and one "SBM Bank India" row faces two brackets on our board. A row goes unlinked for one of two honest reasons: we carry no cards from that bank at all, or we carry only one and an issuer needs two to earn a page.
The one derived claim ◇
SBI Cards & Payment Services Ltd is a separately listed company and RBI's release has no row for it. Its portfolio is reported inside State Bank of India — an identification we make from the arithmetic, not one RBI states. Every market-share figure involving SBI Card on this site carries that caveat.

Every month, and the file it came from

10 RBI releases

Each row is the workbook this desk parsed, at the RBI index entry it was discovered on. Nothing here is transcribed by hand and nothing is frozen — a month RBI reissues is re-fetched and replaced, not appended.

Month Cards Spend Status RBI release
July 2026 12,28,57,894 ₹2,08,186 cr As first published index · XLSX read 2026-08-29
June 2026 12,15,90,832 ₹2,01,362 cr As first published index · XLSX read 2026-08-29
May 2026 12,04,54,115 ₹2,02,742 cr As first published index · XLSX read 2026-08-29
April 2026 11,94,59,156 ₹1,97,274 cr Revised by RBI index · XLSX read 2026-08-29
March 2026 11,86,33,677 ₹2,19,495 cr Revised by RBI index · XLSX read 2026-08-29
February 2026 11,77,04,486 ₹1,77,292 cr As first published index · XLSX read 2026-08-29
January 2026 11,66,52,407 ₹1,99,085 cr Revised by RBI index · XLSX read 2026-08-29
December 2025 11,57,91,713 ₹2,04,687 cr Revised by RBI index · XLSX read 2026-08-29
November 2025 11,50,01,607 ₹1,88,799 cr Revised by RBI index · XLSX read 2026-08-29
October 2025 11,41,33,565 ₹2,14,230 cr Revised by RBI index · XLSX read 2026-08-29

Source: Reserve Bank of India, Bankwise ATM/POS/Card Statistics. The data is RBI's; we publish it with attribution and add nothing to the numbers themselves. RBI marks each release provisional.