India’s metal cards projected to grow 47.2% annually through FY2030

India’s metal cards are projected to grow 47.2% annually in issuance between FY2026 and FY2030, reaching 10.5 million cards in FY2030 from 1.5 million in FY2025. Frost & Sullivan forecasts this expansion even as plastic-card issuance declines at an annual rate of 11.8% over FY2026-FY2030.

Why are metal cards projected to grow 47.2% annually?

Metal cards are projected to grow because banks and financial technology companies are using premium physical cards to differentiate their offerings. Frost & Sullivan forecasts annual metal-card issuance rising from 2.2 million in FY2026 to 10.5 million in FY2030, following 1.5 million cards issued in FY2025.

The forecast represents premiumization within payment cards rather than a replacement of all card formats. The source says metal cards are offered to affluent and aspirational customers, while their audience has expanded to mass-affluent customers, millennials and Generation Z. Metal cards can use stainless steel, brass, copper or titanium, with design features including etching and high-definition colouring.

The projection depends on issuers continuing to use metal cards in premium programmes and consumers continuing to value their differentiated design, durability and security positioning. Frost & Sullivan identifies OneCard as a provider focused on metal cards, while describing the wider credit-card market as increasingly driven by digital onboarding, rewards, co-branded partnerships, lifestyle benefits and fraud prevention.

How do metal cards compare with plastic-card issuance?

Metal cards are forecast to grow faster than total payment-card issuance, while plastic-card issuance is forecast to fall. Frost & Sullivan estimates a 47.2% compound annual growth rate, or CAGR, for metal cards in FY2026-FY2030, compared with a negative 11.8% CAGR for plastic cards and 13.1% for total payment-card issuance.

Plastic cards remain much larger than metal cards by annual volume in FY2030, at 247 million cards compared with 10.5 million metal cards. The material mix is nevertheless projected to change because conventional plastic-card issuance declines while metal cards and eco-friendly cards expand. Eco-friendly cards have the fastest projected rate among the three material categories, at 80.6% annually in FY2026-FY2030.

The source links the eco-friendly category to a move away from conventional polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, card materials. Mastercard has committed to phase out PVC plastics from its payment cards by 2028 in favour of recycled or bio-based materials, and Airtel Payments Bank has launched recycled-PVC debit cards in India. Frost & Sullivan states that recycled materials can result in higher realization for card-manufacturing vendors, without quantifying the per-card difference.

How large could the metal-card manufacturing opportunity become?

India’s metal-card issuance market is projected to reach Rs 2,098.3 crore in FY2030, compared with Rs 305.4 crore in FY2025. Frost & Sullivan forecasts a 47.6% CAGR in market value for FY2026-FY2030, broadly in line with the 47.2% projected growth rate for annual metal-card issuance.

The market-value definition includes manufacturers that take end-to-end responsibility for card disbursal after a consumer signs up and completes Know Your Customer, or KYC, requirements. A personalization bureau can perform physical and electronic encoding of end-user data, personal identification number printing, embossing, packaging and assembly. Payment-scheme certification is also required for cards to meet security and operational standards for acceptance.

Metal cards in force, meaning cards in circulation rather than cards issued during a year, are projected to rise from 3.7 million in FY2025 to 35.0 million in FY2030. This represents a 56.1% CAGR in FY2026-FY2030, exceeding the 47.2% issuance forecast because cards in force depend both on new issuance and on cards remaining active.

India’s projected issuance growth is faster than the global metal-card forecast, although it starts from a smaller base. Global metal cards are projected to increase from 56.0 million cards in CY2025 to 113.0 million in CY2030, at a stated CAGR of 15.3% for CY2026-CY2030. India’s FY2025 issuance base of 1.5 million cards is therefore a small part of that global scale.

What supports premium metal-card issuance in India?

Credit-card expansion and co-branded programmes provide the source-supported conditions for premium metal-card issuance. Credit cards in circulation are projected to increase from 110 million in FY2025 to 261 million in FY2030, at a 21.8% CAGR in FY2026-FY2030, compared with 11.0% for prepaid payment instrument, or PPI, cards and 3.3% for debit cards.

Co-branded cards allow issuers to work with partner brands on customer acquisition while the issuing bank manages the customer relationship. The source estimates that co-branded cards account for less than 30% of India’s credit-card market and identifies partnerships involving Amazon, Airtel, Flipkart, Myntra and Swiggy. Under this model, issuers and partners can share profits from interest, fees and subventions.

India’s payment-card penetration provides further context for issuance. India had 0.7 cards per person across the entire population and 1.0 cards per person aged 15 and above in calendar year 2023, compared with 7.2 cards per person aged 15 and above in the United States. The source estimates India had about 0.91 payment cards per capita as of December 2025, with debit cards accounting for most cards in circulation.

The growth forecast is not independent of credit regulation and underwriting. The Reserve Bank of India increased risk weights on unsecured portfolios by 25 percentage points in November 2023, making them more capital-intensive and prompting tighter underwriting, according to the source. Continued metal-card expansion therefore requires issuer appetite for premium card programmes as well as customer demand.

Conclusion

Metal cards are projected to become a faster-growing payment-card material category in India, with annual issuance forecast to reach 10.5 million cards and the issuance market forecast to reach Rs 2,098.3 crore in FY2030. The key contrast is the projected material mix: metal cards grow at 47.2% annually and eco-friendly cards at 80.6%, while plastic-card issuance falls at 11.8% in FY2026-FY2030.

The next development to watch is whether banks, financial technology companies and co-brand partners continue to introduce premium programmes under tighter unsecured-credit underwriting conditions following the Reserve Bank of India’s November 2023 risk-weight change. Mastercard’s stated plan to phase out PVC payment-card plastics by 2028 and recycled-PVC card launches in India will also shape issuers’ choice of differentiated physical-card materials.