AT THE HELM
Abhijit Chakravorty, MD and CEO, SBI Cards and Payment Services (SBI Card)
- IBJ Bureau
- Oct 06, 2023
Number
of credit cards has been steadily rising in the country. There were over 8.6
crore credit cards outstanding as of April 2023, according to the Reserve Bank
of India’s (RBI) latest data. The number of cards grew by about 15 per cent
from 7.5 crore outstanding in April 2022.
It is
an interesting time for credit card companies as card spending keeps rising,
owing to several factors. Industry insiders point out that people prefer to use
their credit cards for big- and mid-size spends like travel, electronics,
dining or shopping. High disposable income among a sizeable number of young
Indians, rewards showered by card companies and other incentives – such as zero
equated monthly instalment facilities and attractive cash-back options – have
been encouraging many young Indians to swipe their cards.
It is
in the midst of these promising developments that Abhijit Chakravorty has taken
charge as managing director and chief executive officer of SBI Cards and Payment
Services (SBI Card) since mid-August. A postgraduate in Applied Chemistry, Mr Chakravorty
is a Certified Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers and has undergone
an Online Certificate Programme in Finance for Non-Finance Executives at Indian
Institute of Technology, Delhi.
With a
rich experience of around 35 years in the banking sector, the new SBI Card
chief started his career as a probationary officer with State Bank of India
(SBI) in 1988. Having worked across sectors, Mr Chakrvorty has been adept in
handling retail and corporate banking, overseas operations and IT
infrastructure.
Prior
to joining SBI Card, Mr Chakravorty had led the IT operations of SBI’s customer-facing
channels and payment systems as chief general manager (channels and operations).
One of his previous assignments with the bank included his long stint with commercial
credit group, where he was involved in high-value corporate lending. He had
also headed the operations of SBI in Bangladesh as CEO and country head and had
served at the bank’s Hong Kong branch. Just before taking up his responsibility
at SBI Card, Mr Chakravorty was deputy managing director of SBI.
It is a
little over a month since Mr Chakravorty assumed his new role. This is an
exciting time when the Indian credit card industry has been recording robust
growth both in terms of volumes and card spends. Industry insiders forecast
that number of credit cards would cross the 10-crore mark by the turn of this calendar
year.
SBI
Card is the country’s second-largest card player with 1.68 crore credit cards
subscribers. The Gurugram, Haryana-headquartered company is inching closer to
the market leader, HDFC Bank, which has the highest number of outstanding cards
at 1.78 crore. With 1.45 crore and 1.22 crore credit cards, ICICI Bank and Axis
Bank respectively are also catching up in a highly-competitive market. Mr
Chakravorty would perhaps already be ready with plans and strategies to make
SBI card the market leader.
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