Banking industry

HDFC Bank and Discover Financial Services Aim to Double Diners Club Card Base in India

Strategic Insights

Sep 6, 2023 — 1 min read

India's credit card industry is witnessing significant growth, driven by the increasing adoption of digital payments and the rise of the affluent segment of customers. HDFC Bank, in partnership with Discover Financial Services, intends to capitalize on this trend by doubling the Diners Club card base and transactions volume in the country over the next 18 months. The two companies aim to achieve this through co-branded partnerships with luxury brands and by scaling up their distribution channels.

Key Takeaways:

HDFC Bank and Discover Financial Services aim to double the Diners Club card base and transactions volume in India over the next 18 months.
Ricardo Leite, senior vice-president and head of international markets at Discover Financial Services, plans to build co-branded partnerships with major luxury brands in India, focusing on the food, hospitality, and travel sectors.
Parag Rao, country head for payments, digital banking, and consumer finance at HDFC Bank, expects 23% of Indian households to have an income of Rs 10 lakh or more by 2030, and sees an opportunity to cater to this growing affluent segment with Diners Club cards.
Diners Club already accounts for around 20% of HDFC Bank's overall card spends.
HDFC Bank plans to invest in back-end systems and build strong partnerships to cater to the full spectrum of credit card customers in the country.
Parag Rao acknowledged the significant growth of the Indian payments ecosystem, driven by the adoption of UPI, and stated that the company believes it has a big opportunity as a full-suite card issuer.

Statistics:

HDFC Bank has issued around 18 million credit cards.
About 1 million of these are Diners Club cards, issued by Discover.
20% of HDFC Bank's overall card spends come from Diners Club.
78% of Indian households do not have an income of Rs 10 lakh or more (source: Reserve Bank of India data).

Sources:

Reserve Bank of India data
Parag Rao, country head for payments, digital banking, and consumer finance at HDFC Bank

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