HDFC Bank''s asset quality continues to be stable: Senior bank official

Mumbai: Asset quality of the country's largest credit card issuer HDFC Bank continues to be stable even as many of its peers are facing challenges, a senior official said on Thursday.

The bank is witnessing "good traction" on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for credit cards, its head for payments business and consumer finance Parag Rao told reporters here. "We have not seen any rise (in defaults) or any stress in our portfolio. We continue to be stable even as we get out of the pandemic," Rao said, speaking on the sidelines of the launch of a co-branded credit card with Marriott Bonvoy. Recently, there have been concerns over high growth in unsecured credit card portfolios by many players in the industry, which has also led to speculation about regulatory moves to take care of the concerns.

As per RBI data, state-run banks' gross non-performing assets (GNPAs) from the credit card segment have doubled to 18 per cent at the end of 2022-23. When asked about the likelihood of any such intervention by the regulator, Rao declined to comment, but acknowledged that there have been "discussions" on the spike in stress on unsecured lending. The bank has always been prudent in its approach and has not changed its underwriting standards, he said. Strategies like choosing whom to lend after running every case through an analytics engine and monitoring the portfolio regularly to spot early signs of stress and tracking the environment to understand the cyclical business have helped the lender, he added.

Nearly three-fourths of credit cards are sold to the bank's existing customers, while the rest are from the market, Rao said, adding that the trend will continue. Rao declined to share the exact number of NPAs from the credit card business, but added that the number is half of that of its nearest competition. As per official data, HDFC Bank had 1.83 crore cards in the market as of June 2023 and continued to be a leader despite a multi-week halt in new customer additions after being penalised by the Reserve Bank of India. The bank has been adding 25-30 per cent new cards every year, Rao said, adding that he hopes the numbers would be the same even in 2023-24. He declined to share a target on the newly launched offering, but said the bank will be looking at wallet share gains as it is a premium product.

Customers will have to pay an annual fee of Rs 3,000 to avail the card, which comes with a slew of features, including access to airport lounges, golf sessions and complimentary stays.