Credit Card Report- January 2026 by Asit C. Mehta Investment Interrmediates Limited
Total Spends Report a MoM Decline of 2.7%; While Transaction Volume Remains Flat
1. Credit Card Spends Remain Subdued
Credit card spending moderated in January 2026, declining to Rs 1,990bn, a decrease of Rs 56bn from December 2025. Spends grew 8.1% YoY, but declined 2.7% MoM
The decline was largely driven by the top four banks, which contributed 87.5% of the total reduction in monthly spending:
* SBI: Rs 18.7bn decline (-4.7% MoM)
* ICICI Bank: Rs 16.9bn decline (-4.6% MoM)
* HDFC Bank: Rs 7.2bn decline (-1.3% MoM)
* Axis Bank: Rs 6.3bn decline (-2.7% MoM)
In contrast, select mid-sized banks performed relatively better. Yes Bank reported a 1.8% MoM growth in spends, while Federal Bank 2% MoM growth in spends, however, on a comparatively lower base The weakness was broad-based, with both Online spends (-2.5%) and POS spends (-3.17%) declining MoM.
2. Market Share Dynamics: HDFC Gains;
SBI & ICICI Lose Share Despite lower overall spends, HDFC Bank gained 43bps MoM, increasing its market share from 28.0% to 28.4%, supported by a relatively softer decline in spends. However, its market share had corrected from 29.4% in November 2025 to 28.0% in December 2025. In contrast, SBI lost 39bps, and ICICI Bank lost 34bps due to sharper declines in monthly spends.
Among mid-sized players, Yes Bank gained 9bps, and Federal Bank gained 6bps. Most other banks maintained a stable market share.
The top four banks (HDFC Bank, SBI, ICICI Bank, and Axis Bank) together accounted for 76.5% of total industry spends
3. Transaction Volumes Remain Flat
Total transaction volumes remained largely flat MoM but increased 24.9% YoY (lower compared to its historic growth rate) to 537mn transactions in January 2026.
Among major banks:
* SBI reported a 1.2% MoM increase (+1.13mn transactions)
* ICICI Bank declined 1.1% MoM (-1.1mn)
* HDFC Bank declined 0.5% MoM (-6.5mn)
* Axis Bank declined 0.5% MoM (-3.7mn)
4. Healthy Card Issuance Continues
Card issuance remained healthy, with 0.87mn new cards issued in January 2026, taking total cards in force to 116.7mn. Among large banks:
* HDFC Bank led issuance with 0.31mn cards
* ICICI Bank followed with 0.12mn cards
Among mid-sized banks:
* Federal Bank appears to be accelerating its credit card expansion, adding ~0.12mn cards during the month (similar to ICICI Bank), taking its total cards in force to 2.1mn, reflecting 6% MoM and 83% YoY growth.
* IDFC First Bank also continues to scale steadily, with its card portfolio growing 30% YoY.
5. Average Spend Metrics
Average spend per card declined 3.5% MoM to Rs 17,060 in January 2026, as active cards increased; however, spends failed to catch up. Average spend per transaction also declined 3% MoM and 13% YoY, suggesting a shift toward smaller ticket-size transactions.
Overall View
While card issuance remains steady, aggregate spends and transaction volumes have not scaled proportionately. This suggests that a significant portion of incremental cards may be issued to existing credit card customers, leading to spend redistribution across multiple cards rather than expansion in overall industry spends. The current trend, therefore, indicates portfolio expansion is likely driven more by cross-sell than by meaningful customer base deepening.
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