Indonesia’s central bank plans to place stricter limits on credit card issuance to reduce rising consumer card debt in the country.
Under the proposed regulations, Bank Indonesia would limit Indonesians with incomes below 3 million rupiah (US$60,000 or 44,000 euros) per month to own no more than two credit cards, a spokesperson for the bank tells PaymentsSource.
The central bank is tightening card issuance to control instances of low-income Indonesians owning too many cards and putting themselves into heavy debt, he says.
The central bank also would require credit cardholders to be at least 21 years old, the spokesperson says.
The new rules will fall under Bank Indonesia’s revised regulations for payment systems using cards that the central bank plans to officially issue later this month. They would take effect at the end of the year.
According to the central bank, Indonesian banks had a combined 51 million credit cards on issue at the end of 2010, an increase of 14.6% from 44.5 million cards a year earlier.
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