6 million credit cards cancelled in 2009-10

Banks cut down sharply on issuing credit cards and also closed a number of cards in 2009-10.Six million credit cards or about a quarter of the total number of cards a year ago went out during the last fiscal.The number of cards in circulation as of March 2010 was 18.3million ,a level last seen about five years ago,data from the Reserve Bank of India show. Rising defaults in the credit card industry as well as unsecured personal loans portfolio by customers as a consequence of the slow down in the economy a year ago forced a number of banks to rethink their growth strategy .Besides ,regulatory warnings and court structures about aggresive recovery practices of many banks also forced them to go slow in the business. Apart from cutting down new issuances ,banks also began to cut credit limits for existing customers as part of a de-risking exercise.(BL 13052010)