NEW YORK—Banks issued 42% more credit cards in the first six months of 2021 compared with the same period in 2020, including a record-high 6.93 million in June 2021, according to a new Equifax report.
Credit card originations started out strong in 2020 but finished down 27% from 2019 as the COVID-19 pandemic weighed heavily on the credit card industry.
April and May 2020 saw the fewest originations (2.72 million per month) in a decade.
May 2021 originations, on the other hand, totaled 6.6 million, reported Bankrate in it analysis.
“That figure was only topped once previously (in Aug. 2019). Talk about a turnaround: Banks issued 2.4 times more cards in May 2021 than in May 2020. And then June 2021 topped them all,” Bankrate stated.