HDFC Bank today said it would review its offer to charge the lowest interest rate on credit card outstandings even as State Bank of India announced its intention to grab the top slot among credit card issuers by the end of the year.

At present, Standard Chartered Bank is the largest issuer of credit cards in India, while SBI, through a joint venture is in second place, with 15 per cent market share.

Speaking on the sidelines of an accounting seminar organised by the Controller General of Accounts and the World Bank, HDFC Bank chief executive Aditya Puri said the bank which reduced interest rates on credit card advances to 2.6 per cent a month may be forced to revert to charging higher rates if its customer base did not rise significantly in the next few months.

"We offer the lowest interest rate to our credit card users, which is 9.6 per cent below the others, but I don''t know if customers are actually bothered about the reduction in rates," he told reporters.

He said interest rates offered by credit card issuers will only come down if the volumes increased. Puri put the threshold limit at 1 million credit cards.

Customers have been complaining of the burden of high interest rate that is charged by credit card issuers. Even Vijay Kelkar, advisor to the finance minister, had raised the issue during his discussions with bank chiefs last year but no progress has been made at the industry level.

Puri defended the interest rates to the high default rate, ranging between 7 per cent and 15 per cent, the processing charges, the recovery costs and the expenditure on putting up the infrastructure.

Purwar said SBI hoped to be number one by the end of this fiscal with 50 per cent market share and the business was already profitable for them.

"The 14,000 odd branch network will be providing sufficient volume for the credit card business," he said. The SBI chief said the bank has invested about Rs 500 crore in technology and hopes to computerise all its branches in the next one and half years.