Chinese Banks Have Issued Nearly 1.6 Billion Payment Cards

Published June 26, 2008, 1:00 a.m. EDT

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Updated June 26, 2008, 12:00 a.m. EDT

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Chinese banks had issued 1.58 billion credit and debit cards as of 31 March, up 30% from 1.22 billion cards at the end of March 2007, according to a report from the People's Bank of China. Credit card issuance rose 93%, to 104.7 million cards from 54.2 million cards. Chinese banks had issued 1.5 billion debit cards, up 25% from 1.2 billion as of March 2007. Chinese credit and debit cardholders spent 824.6 trillion yuan (US$120.1 trillion or 77 trillion euros) as of the end of March, up 58% from 521.9 trillion yuan during the same period last year. The report says the China UnionPay network had 203 credit and debit card issuers as of the end of March.

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