RBI partially lifts ban on HDFC Bank, allows it to sell new credit cards

The bank's existing users were not impacted by the ban and it had 1.48 crore credit card customers as of June.

Eight months after barring the country's largest private sector lender HDFC Bank from selling new credit cards, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has lifted the ban, banking sources said on Tuesday. However, the ban on launching new technology initiatives remains, the sources said. In December last year, the RBI had come out with an unprecedented action implementing both the bans, after repeated instances of technological outages at the lender, which is the market leader in the credit cards segment. Rivals ICICI Bank and SBI Cards seized the opportunity to narrow the gap with HDFC Bank.