SBI Cards plans to double its credit card base by March 2015

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/banking/finance/banking/sbi-cards-plans-to-double-its-credit-card-base-by-march-2015/articleshow/16382788.cms

SBI Cards & Payment Services said it aims to more than double the number of its credit cards in circulation over the next three years in a market where credit card penetration is low but customers improved repayment record. 

India has about 18.3 million cards while SBI Cards has 2.3 million at present with HDFC Bank being the market leader. Market like China or Japan has about 200 million outstanding credit cards. 

""Penetration in the credit card market is quite low in India. There is a huge potential for growth,"" SBI Cards chief executive Kadambi Narahari said Thursday. 

The 60:40 joint venture between State Bank of India and GE Capital plans to issue 575,000 new cards this fiscal and another 800,000 and one million cards in 2013-14 and 2014-15 respectively. 

The company operates in 50 cities and has outstanding receivables around Rs 2,500 crore. 

The credit card industry had suffered from around 20% delinquency ratio in 2006 but the situation improved since then as card issuers started relying more on Credit Information Bureau (India) Ltd or Cibil data for borrowers' credit repayment behaviour.