Who were the big gainers among banks when HDFC Bank was barred from issuing fresh credit cards to customers?

If there is one bank that gained the most in terms of credit card accretion during the HDFC credit card ban, it is ICICI Bank. According to RBI data, ICICI Bank issued a total of 15 lakh new credit cards between December 2020 and August 2021. If you just look at the last ban month of Aug-21, ICICI added 219,084 cards, SBI Cards 162,587 and Axis Bank 82,619. The ban on HDFC Bank was due to the glitches on its e-banking portal and mobile application.

However, HDFC has maintained its leadership position in the credit card business despite the 9 month ban. In addition, in about 45 days since the ban was lifted on 17-Aug, HDFC Bank has gone on a card issue spree and added 400,000 new cards. There is more in store from HDFC Bank as it plans to get back to its run rate of 3 lakh cards per month by December and 5 lakh by June 2022. It is a high risk but also a high return business.