Personal lender HDFC Financial institution has issued 400,000 bank cards for the reason that embargo imposed by the Reserve Financial institution of India (RBI) was lifted in mid-August, surpassing the milestone it had set to initially get again to its pre-embargo run fee of issuing 300,000 playing cards per 30 days.
The document issuance is as of September 21, 2021, the financial institution mentioned. The lender had beforehand mentioned its goal was to problem 500,000 bank cards a month starting February 2022, and regain its misplaced market share within the excellent bank cards within the subsequent 3-4 months.
Pre-embargo, HDFC Financial institution had a market share of 25.6 per cent within the excellent bank card market, which dropped to 23.2 per cent in July. As of July, HDFC Financial institution had 14.76 million bank cards available in the market in contrast with 15.38 million, pre-embargo.
“Over the past 9 months of the embargo, we did lose market share in numbers as a result of we had stopped sourcing. One of many concepts to get again the market share was to considerably ramp up acquisition put up the lifting of the embargo to make up for misplaced time. So, over the subsequent 3-4 quarters, we are going to achieve again market share and improve our worth market share”, mentioned Parag Rao, Group Head-Funds, Shopper Finance, Digital Banking & IT, HDFC Financial institution.
“As a frontrunner within the playing cards house, we promised, we’d be again with a bang. We at the moment are pushing the pedal not solely to accumulate new clients but in addition to boost choices of our current playing cards”, he added.
Having mentioned that, Rao emphasised that there can be no dilution of credit score norms from the financial institution’s facet. “HDFC Financial institution will at all times be a really prudent lender and proceed to be very conservative in our credit score requirements and I don’t anticipate a change in our credit score stance”, he mentioned.
The financial institution continues to supply a major variety of legal responsibility clients, which can kind the bottom for cross-selling of bank cards. Nearly 80 per cent of the brand new acquisition can be from the financial institution’s personal legal responsibility clients and the remainder can be open market buyer acquisition. The financial institution already has a 60-million legal responsibility base accessible with itself, which it may faucet into.
After RBI lifted the embargo, the lender has been specializing in 4 key methods — updating current merchandise, launching new merchandise for segments the place they aren’t current at present, strategic alliances and partnerships and consequently rising the market, and creating a really superior buyer expertise.
In comparison with different digital fee kinds, the bank card market is very underpenetrated therefore there may be loads of headroom to develop. And, the market has seen the entry of a number of new gamers up to now few months.
Rao mentioned there’s a entire new set of consumers coming in who’re all electronically savvy, and are therefore essential goal segments for bank cards. One other focus space to develop can be semi-urban geographies as bank cards have usually been a metro metropolis product.
“Up to now few years, there was a major ramp-up by all of the gamers. We’ve moved from 30 million to 60 million playing cards up to now 3-5 years. Additionally, the brand new playing cards issued on a month-to-month foundation are crossing 1 million now. Very quickly we are going to cross the 100 million mark in bank cards”, Rao mentioned.
Not too long ago, HDFC Financial institution partnered with Paytm to supply co-branded bank cards on the Visa platform. The principle purpose to forge strategic alliances with companions is to enter segments of shoppers the place the financial institution might not have been current or might not have had a robust presence, the financial institution mentioned.
The financial institution final month mentioned it has over 20 initiatives that may come to the market within the subsequent 6-9 months, which embrace co-branded playing cards with company India spanning pharma, journey, FMCG, hospitality, telecom, and fintech.
In the meantime, forward of the festive season, the financial institution introduced the relaunch of three playing cards — Millennia, MoneyBack+ , and Freedom — which have been reinvented to place extra energy into the arms of the shoppers, by including a number of recent options and advantages. The brand new card variants can be accessible to clients from October.
“Our technique to re-invent, create and co-create has been crafted based mostly on the evaluation of consumers’ shopping for behaviour, the classes they spend on, and the spend patterns. The months that we now have spent sharpening our technique at the moment are bearing fruit. We’re able to unveil finest in school choices and expertise to our clients, simply in time for the festive season”, Rao mentioned.
