Credit card defaults rose by 28% in 2024 touching Rs 6,742 crore: RBI

New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India stated, responding to a Right to Information query, that non-performing assets ( NPAs) in the credit card segment rose by 28.42% in 2024, Scroll reported citing The Indian Express.

This marked a rise from Rs 5,250 crore to Rs 6,742 crore outstanding in the segment at the end of the 2023 calendar year.

A loan account is termed as a non-performing asset in the event of a borrower delaying repayment beyond 90 days.

The central bank stated following a RTI query filed by The Indian Express that NPAs ‘in the credit card segment accounted for 2.3% of the total Rs 2.92 lakh crore outstanding loans in December 2024’, according to Scroll.

However, NPAs in the previous year made up 2.06% of Rs 2.53 lakh crore loans.

It is reported that NPAs in credit card segment went up more than fivefold since December 2020 hovering at Rs 1,108 crore.

This upward trend of credit defaults comes amid reports that Indian banks pulled through reducing their overall gross NPAs.

Total gross NPAs has reportedly gone down from Rs 5 lakh crore, or ‘2.5% of total advances in December 2013 to Rs 4.55 lakh crore, or 2.41%, by December 2024’.

Meanwhile, credit card usage has gone up steeply as the value of transactions almost tripling over the past three years.

Notably, credit card payment hit a total Rs 18.31 lakh crore in the year ended March 2024, showcasing a rise from Rs 6.30 lakh crore in March 2021.

Marking a rise from Rs 64,737 crore in January 2021, credit card transactions stood at Rs 1.84 lakh crore in January 2025 alone.

Also, the number of credit cards that banks issued also went up to 10.88 crore as of January 2025 where it was 9.95 crore a year earlier.