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Debit card issuances jump 12%, credit cards 4% in Q2

Mumbai: Debit card issuances in the country grew 12 per cent to 865.43 million and credit cards inched up 4 per cent to 58.69 million on an annualised basis in the September quarter, a report said on Tuesday.

While debit card issuance has been on the rise since the beginning of the year, adding over 13 million cards to the system in the third quarter ended September, the number of credit cards rose by a little over 1 million in the same quarter, it added.

The report was published by Worldline -- the largest merchant acquirer and payment processor in Europe and the number four globally, collating the latest RBI data.

Rise in debit card issuances can be attributed mostly to a significant number of new accounts opened under the Jan Dhan scheme, said Deepak Chandnani, managing director for Worldline South Asia and Middle East.

Of the total additions, RuPay cards led the growth chart, adding 5.68 million cards to the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) accounts in Q3.

As of September, total number of RuPay cards issued under the Jan Dhan scheme stood at 300.14 million, against 294.46 million in July.

Replacement of magnetic stripe cards with EMV chip cards to existing customers, upgrade to contactless cards, pent-up demand for card issuance after the strict lockdown and other normal issuance could be other reasons for this rise, he said. There were a total of 1.03 billion debit card transactions worth Rs 2.13 lakh crore in Q3, the report said.

The number of debit card transactions processed at point-of-sale (PoS) terminals stood at 486.83 million, while e-commerce transactions were at 550.32 million, which also includes card-to-card transfers and digital bill payments through ATMs.

In terms of value, Rs 85,768 crore was processed at PoS terminals, and Rs 1.27 lakh crore in e-commerce transactions.

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