AT THE HELM

Abhijit Chakravorty, MD and CEO, SBI Cards and Payment Services (SBI Card)

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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