Indian banks have issued over 16 million new debit cards during the height of the Covid-19 lockdown, according to a report by Economic Times.
These cards were issued at a time when the demand for contactless cards during the pandemic ramped up. It also coincides with the country’s banking regulator urging banks to replace the old magnetic stripe cards with the new contactless variant to facilitate contactless payments.
According to bankers and payment experts, the move by the central government to expand the coverage of various relief schemes linked to Jan Dhan bank accounts may also have pushed the demands.
The latest Reserve Bank of India data noted that the number of debit cards in circulation increased to 845.4 million in June 2020 from 828.5 million at the end March 2020. According to the data, the circulation of cards issued by state-owned banks increased to 597.1 million from 585.6 million, even when operations at branches were affected by the nationwide lockdown.
In the same period, private sector banks issued about four million cards, with their circulation spiralling to 168.6 million. The remaining cards were issued by foreign banks, small finance banks and payment banks, the report added.
The banks have been replacing the old magstripe-based debit cards with the chip-based EMV cardssince September of 2018.
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