As you are aware, there has been phenomenal increase in the number of credit cards issued by the banks in India during the last few years and a majority of the PSBs has been in the credit card business since long. The number of credit cards outstanding at the end of June 2008 was 27.02 million as against 24.39 million in June 2007.
Of these, the number of credit cards issued by public sector banks was 3.8 million, of which 3.09 million cards were issued by the SBI Cards – a joint venture of GE Money and SBI. The usage of credit cards has also recorded an increase of 10.73 per cent during the year this period, which is mainly at the Point of Sale (POS) terminals.