Indian Credit and Debit Card Use to Explode
Indian electronic payments or e-payments for retail purchases has grown by 60% in the last 3 years and is set to grow by a further 70% in the next two years, according to a report by research and consulting firm Celent. The value of retail e-payments reach between US$ 150 Billion to 180 Billion (Rs 750,000 Crore to Rs 900,000 Crore) by 2010.
Although the Indian payments system is still dominated by paper based transactions, there is still great potential for a transition to electronic payments. Electronic transactions currently account for just 37 percent of total payments by volume. However, over 75 percent of payment value is electronic.
As consumers have become increasingly aware and wealthier in India, there has been increased usage of plastic payment cards, and in fact according to Celent, India has been one of the fastest growing markets for payment cards in the Asia Pacific region. The Country has approximately 130 million cards in (both credit and debit) in circulation and that number is set to hit approximately 210 Million by 2010. Celent reckons that the mix between types of cards issued will be 169 Million debit cards, whilst the company estimates by that point there will be about 40 Million credit cards in use.
Celent expects that Indian credit cards will rapidly overtake debit cards in terms of transaction value even though they happen to be fewer in number as customers continue to use credit cards for purchases and bill payments.
Comments
Leave a Reply