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Private sector lender RBL Bank hopes to continue with customer onboarding for its credit card division and touch pre-Covid levels by December or next month, but remains cautious about the segments it is acquiring new customers from.
“On customer onboarding in credit cards, we will reach pre-Covid level either this month or latest by January,” said Harjeet Toor, Head -Retail, Inclusion and Rural Business, RBL Bank.
The bank onboarded about 1.25 lakh new credit card customers last month against a monthly run rate of 1.3 lakh to 1.35 lakh customers before the Covid-19 pandemic.
RBL Bank is one of the largest credit card players, with 27,13,931 outstanding credit card customers as on September 30, 2020.
Toor said the bank has, however, managed to return to almost pre-Covid level of card issuance, but has not relaxed its underwriting criteria.
“In another couple of months, credit bureaus will be able to reflect customer behaviour of the last three four months, which will give us more data on opening up some segments where we are still tight,” he said, adding that broadly, the bank’s credit card portfolio consists of 70 per cent salaried customers and 30 per cent self employed customers.
However, at present about 85 per cent are salaried and 15 per cent are self employed customers.
“We would typically onboard about 12 per cent to 15 per cent of customers who have never had a card before. But as they are slightly more risky, today, we are still going largely only to customers who have a card,” Toor said.
The bank is also trying to see whether a customer had taken the loan moratorium or not. “If the customer had taken a moratorium, then we are not issuing cards to them now,” he said.
With the festive season over the last few months, the bank also witnessed credit card spends bouncing back.
“Festive seasons started mid-October and ended mid-November. If I take this month and the immediate previous month, we saw 15 per cent jump in spends. It was largely around discretionary, which meant apparel, shopping,” Toor said.
He also said he doesn’t expect too many customers to come in for restructuring of their credit card outstanding.
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