Will be aggressive to win lost market share: HDFC Bank MD

“With the lifting of the restriction on cards acquisition, all the preparations and strategising that we have put in place to ‘’come back with a bang’’ will now be rolled out,” Jagdishan said in an email to its over 1.2 lakh employees.

Conceding that the bank has lost customer market share in the over nine months of the ban, Jagdishan said it will go aggressively to the market with its existing products and also launch new ones in the form of co-brands and partnerships.

“I am confident that we will regain and grow our customer market share and revenue market share in the time to come. We have the resources and plans in place to further reinforce our pole position in the credit card segment,” he said.

The RBI on Tuesday partially lifted the ban on issue of new credit cards imposed on the bank in December last year after repeated instances of technology outages but continued with the restrictions on the new launches on the digital front.

Interestingly, the assertion from HDFC Bank, considered one of the best in class on asset quality, comes at a time when concerns are being raised about the outlook on credit quality in unsecured lending business like credit cards.

The bank has started building an architecture that will ensure its systems bounce back quickly while ensuring minimal inconvenience to our customers in the case of a challenge, Jagdishan said, acknowledging that there can be issues with technology. Jagdishan expressed “gratitude” to the regulator for the relaxation and also thanked it for the “rap on the knuckles”.

“This has opened our eyes to the world of possibilities, re-imagine our IT systems & processes, among others,” he said.