mumbai the countrys largest private sector lender hdfc bank on wednesday said the elevated stress on unsecured loan assets noticed during the covid19 pandemic is over and the bank is upbeat about the segment nowthe unsecured lending book for the bank includes credit cards and personal loansaccording to hdfc banks country head for consumer finance parag rao the next two years present an interesting opportunity to grow in the segment which is otherwise considered a bit riskyacknowledging that his bank also witnessed some elevation in asset quality woes from the unsecured segment during the pandemic rao clarified that the same was never at worrying levelsa large portion of the issues of the pandemic are gone he said adding that customers seeking loans now are relatively better from the risk perspectivedevelopments in the overall economy where consumption is growing make this a good phase and the bank looks at it as a good time to grow in this segment over the next 1824 monthsspeaking at the launch of a cobranded credit card in association with retailer shoppers stop rao said the bank is targeting to increase the contribution of cobranded cards in its business over the medium termin terms of spends it is targeting to almost double the share from cobranded cards to up to 30 per cent in the next three years from the present 15 per cent in terms of the number of cards the share of cobranded cards is likely to go to over 35 per cent from the current 12 per cent rao saidhe said the bank is in talks with a number of players for partnerships which include a multiportfolio conglomerate a telecom player and exclusively digital offerings with dining and local mobility playerat a time when the bnpl buy now pay later trend is growing especially fuelled by the fintechs rao said the exclusively digital credit card offering would be like the samehe however said that bnpls efficacy for the bank will be limited to acquiring new customers and it cannot be a tool to build a bookrao explained that a twothree month loan product like bnpl which is driven by consumers impulsive buying behaviour cannot be helpful in growing a bookat present the bank has 16 million credit cards and is growing with the addition of around 5 lakh each month rao said adding that it is on track to achieve its goals stated at the time of restarting credit card issuances after the rbi lifted its regulatory banhe said it will take about 69 months for the numbers to reflect the gains it is making and claimed that internal data available to him suggests that they are on the way to achieve the targets on market share by number of cards and spendsabout the deal between axis bank and citi in which the third largest domestic lender is taking over the consumer business of the american lender rao opined that it will not change things much for the hdfc bankabout the banks partnership