India's credit card market experienced a notable resurgence in July 2026, with overall spends climbing 3.4% month-on-month (MoM) to reach ₹2,081 billion. Despite this positive momentum, the recovery was uneven across the country's largest card issuers, revealing shifts in market dynamics.
HDFC Bank Maintains Dominant Position
HDFC Bank firmly held its position as the market leader, commanding 28.9% of the industry's total credit card spends in July. The bank recorded a 1.3% MoM growth in spends and a robust 11.9% year-on-year (YoY) increase. While its annual growth outpaced the broader market, HDFC Bank's sequential growth lagged slightly behind the overall industry average for the month.
SBI Card Sees Sequential Decline Amid Strong Annual Growth
SBI Card faced a challenging July, emerging as the biggest sequential loser among the top four issuers. Its card spends declined 3.6% MoM, despite a significant 21.6% YoY increase. This monthly dip was primarily driven by a 5.7% fall in online spending, although point-of-sale (POS) transactions saw a modest 0.8% rise. Despite the sequential setback, SBI's market share grew to 19.0% from 16.8% a year earlier, marking it as the largest YoY share gainer with a 223 basis points (bps) increase.
ICICI Bank Stages Strongest Rebound
In contrast, ICICI Bank demonstrated the sharpest recovery among the major issuers, with its card spends jumping an impressive 8.3% MoM. This strong sequential performance helped ICICI Bank increase its market share by 75 bps MoM to 16.4%. However, its spends remained 5.9% below July 2025 levels, indicating that the improvement represents a recovery from a weaker base rather than a complete annual turnaround.
Axis Bank Recovers as Competition Intensifies
Axis Bank also showed signs of recovery, with card spends rising 7.4% MoM and 4.6% YoY, following a decline in June. Its spending market share stood at 11.4%. Beyond the top four, the competitive landscape is intensifying, with HDFC, SBI, ICICI, and Axis collectively ceding approximately 80 bps of spending share MoM to mid-sized and foreign banks. Furthermore, public sector undertaking (PSU) banks increased their share of card spends from 19.5% to 22.2% over the past year, while private banks collectively lost ground.
July's credit card data highlights a market in transition: HDFC remains the undisputed leader, SBI maintains strong annual momentum but experienced a sequential dip, and both ICICI and Axis banks regained traction. Simultaneously, smaller and PSU banks are steadily increasing their footprint in the dynamic Indian credit card market.