RBI ban behind, Kotak banks on new affluent programme to grow cards portfolio
'An affluent product like the Solitaire card would be very material to the customer spends compared to say an average customer in the portfolio," said Frederick D'Souza, business head—credit cards, Kotak Mahindra Bank.
'It is going to be our play in getting that customer spend share and in making sure that our customers find the product interesting to keep spending on a card and therefore build and strengthen the relationship with the bank," D'Souza told Mint.
The RBI had in April 2024 asked Kotak Mahindra Bank to stop issuing new credit cards and onboarding new credit card customers through its website and mobile application, citing deficiencies in the bank's information technology systems and data security. The ban was lifted nearly 10 months later in February 2025. The bank's credit card portfolio fell to ₹13,420 crore as of March 2025, down 7% year-on-year and 5% sequentially due to the RBI ban.
Despite the ban on adding new customers, Kotak's spends per cards for existing cards kept growing through the period. D'Souza attributed this to a range of customer engagement practices in terms of both monetary value propositions such as rewards, miles and credit limit enhancements, and through exclusive brand partnerships and experience curation.
'We ran a lot of quick commerce offers and portfolio campaigns. We were in fact pioneers in this in the event space, where we actually partnered with the best concerts. That was very targeted at this customer segment and was lapped up quite well," D'Souza said, adding that the focus is not as much on the number of cards but in 'cards that drive spends". 'Our focus is more around spend market share than the card market share only."
At the time of the ban in April 2024, Kotak bank had 6 million credit cards-in-force, recording monthly spends of ₹7,046 crore, as per RBI data. Before the ban was lifted in February 2025, the number of cards outstanding fell significantly to 5 million in January 2025, but spends remained largely steady at ₹7,031 crore. Even after the ban was lifted, cards-in-force have continued to fall to around 4.6 million as of June 2025, when the bank saw card spends worth ₹5,996 crore, as per latest RBI data.
Solitaire programme for affluent segment
The Solitaire programme, launched on Wednesday, is an exclusive, invite-only affluent banking plan, reserved for individuals and families with high-value, multi-dimensional relationship with the bank. The programme looks to track Total Relationship Value across deposits, credit cards, investments, loans, insurance and demat holdings offered by the bank and it is calculated at a family level. The eligibility criteria for salaried customers is ₹75 lakh and for self-employed customers is ₹1 crore in relationship value.
The affluent customer segment currently accounts for upwards of 21% of the bank's credit cards spends. Over the past year, the bank has tied up for early access for its card holders for concerts such as Ed Sheeran, Peppa Pig, Maroon 5 and Guns N' Roses.
'Our thought process is to continue doing that, because it's all also customer feedback driven and the data that we see," D'Souza said, adding that the bank will continue to scale up these opportunities.
These 'opportunities" will include exclusive propositions to customers under the new affluent programme, such as early access, premium access, access to better seats, lounge partnerships and designated parking at events.
'A combination of premium events and premium dining experiences, to start off with, is what we want to really provide to this customer under the Solitaire umbrella," said Rohit Bhasin, president—head of affluent, NRI and business banking and chief marketing officer, Kotak bank.
As such, the experience is just one part of the Solitaire umbrella, Bhasin said, adding that the Solitaire card will also offer other benefits such as lounge access, accelerated miles, zero mark-up on foreign exchange transactions and fuel surcharge waivers that have been curated for the affluent customers and are 'better than any other card" in the Kotak family as of today.
Currently, less than 1% of the bank's 53 million customers are from the affluent segment, but contribute over 35% of the overall business, Bhasin said at the launch of the Solitaire programme. The bank has a 4% market share in the affluent market segment, higher than its 2% market share in the overall banking space, and is looking to grow this share further through offerings such as Solitaire, he added.
'96% of the market is not with us but with other banks. That's the affluent ecosystem that exists, and it is growing at twice the rate of the non-affluent segment. Over the next five years, we see a huge number of affluent customers being created," Bhasin said, adding that under the programme, the bank will also offer pre-approved credit lines of up to ₹8 crore across home loans, personal loans, and credit cards.
Kotak's affluent banking programme will compete with similar schemes offered by larger private lenders such as Axis Bank's Burgundy Banking for high net worth customers and HDFC Bank's invite-only Diner's Club Black Credit Card for ultra-rich customers in November 2023.
Salaried customers are expected to avail personal banking services whereas the self-employed customers will be offered both personal and business banking services. As a result, the self-employed segment will be more profitable but the bank does not have a preference and will look to garner both customer segments, Bhasin told Mint, adding that within the corporate segment, the focus will be on MSME and SMEs with a turnover of up to ₹50 crore.
'The way we have created it helps us offer more products that can meet the needs of the customer more holistically, and we hope that by doing this we will be able to increase the product holding," he said, adding that the affluent card segment is a profitable business for the bank and he expects it to grow faster than the overall business.
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