HDFC Bank has chalked out aggressive plans to regain market share after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has lifted its ban and allowed the private sector lender to sell new credit cards.

In a letter to employees, HDFC Bank managing director and CEO Sashidhar Jagdishan said that the bank would take on its rivals with a mix of existing and new cards to customers.

“All the preparations and strategising that we have put in place to ‘come back with a bang’ will now be rolled out,” HDFC Bank managing director and CEO Sashidhar Jagdishan said in an internal email to employees.

Being under the RBI ban for over eight months due to outage issues, HDFC Bank is going to expand its offerings in the form of co-brand credit cards and partnerships.

“In the coming months, we will aggressively go to the market, with not just our existing suite of credit cards but also new offerings in the form of co-brands and partnerships. Yes, we lost customer market share in the last 9-10 months, but I am confident that we will regain and grow our customer market share and revenue market share in the time to come," Jagdishan said in the email.

HDFC Bank had seen rivals like ICICI Bank and SBI Card make major gains when it was shut out of the growth market. While its outstanding credit cards drop from 15.38 million in November-end to 14.83 million until June end, ICICI Bank moved up from 9.71 million to 11.03 million and SBI Card from 11.29 million to 12.04 million during this period.

“I also know that the last 9-10 months of the embargo have not been easy for you all. It takes great character and spirit to take a knock on the chin and yet stand up again to fight. You all have demonstrated the same tenacity and resilience and I feel humbled and privileged to be leading such a highly motivated team," he said.

With the lifting of RBI restrictions coming before the festive season, HDFC Bank has set stiff targets to make up for the lost time and gain market share. Starting September, the bank is looking to issue 500,000 cards a month for the next few months, a source said.

The RBI on 17 August partially lifted the restrictions on HDFC Bank. While it has been allowed to sell new credit cards, the restrictions on launching other digital initiatives continue.

“The journey towards a future ready organisation has well and truly begun. We have the structure and teams in place and technology will be the force multiplier for us. The last year and half of pandemic and the regulatory action in December has given enough time for us to reflect and learn and I am happy that we have resolved to come back strongly and today, I know each one of you are raring to hit the ground running," Jagdishan said.

On 2 December, the RBI had directed HDFC Bank to temporarily halt all launches of its digital business generating activities under ‘Digital 2.0’, along with sourcing new credit card customers. The order had come after the private sector lender suffered its third big outage within two years. The bank’s existing users were, however, not impacted by the bank.