The banks had taken a careful approach in issuing credit cards during the year ended March 2011.

The number of credit cards in India affected and declining to 180.39 lac from the previous year's card base of 185.46 lac

Most of the banks closed inactive accounts from their credit card portfolio. An inactive account in their systems adds a avoidable maintenance cost. Increasing misbehavior rate in the country, Banks and Card Issuing are expected to remain uncertain in issuing new credit cards.

Banks now forward towards mass marketing and catering to create premium segments. Some banks in Consolidation phase, they assumed a marginal hike in credit card India base in FY 2011-12.

In present Year, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, State bank of India and Citibank topped. These Four banks shares 71% of Credit card industry. Rest 29% by other banks.

HDFC credit card share 28% of card industry. ICICI, SBI, Citibank, with market share of 22%, 13% and 8% respectively. In the same way, the market share of private banks has increased to 54% in FY 2010-11, from 51% in the financial year 2009-10.

In 2010, credit cards issued by private banks in India stood at 94.98 lakh; in FY 2010-11, it rose to 98.18 lakh. However, the market share of foreign banks decreased from 29% in FY 2009-10 with a card base of 53.10 lakh to 26% in FY 2010-11 with 46 lakh cards.

Credit card spends have increased for the year ended March 2011. The credit card spends at merchant POS terminals increased by 22% y-o-y.

In the previous year, with the fall in credit card base, the credit card spends had shown a negative growth of 5%.

The average annual credit card spends per card has increased significantly to R41,862 in the financial year 2010-11 from R33,335 in the financial year 2009-10, reporting a growth rate of 25% year-over-year.