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■ Credit card suspensions up
The suspension ratio for credit cards reached a record high of 80 percent in March amid concerns that the credit card market is saturated, according to the latest statistics released by the Financial Supervisory Commission. The commission said on its Web site yesterday that banking institutions issued 1.02 million credit cards in March, while a whopping 800,000 cards were suspended during the same time, accounting for 80 percent of the new cards issued. The figures also showed that 44.75 million credit cards were in circulation in March, while the number of effective cards was only 24.72 million units, or 55 percent. This means the nation's 8.3 million cardholders each have an average of 5.4 credit cards but only three cards are really in use.

■ Reserves rise to record
Foreign exchange reserves rose to a record US$252.64 billion at the end of last month, the nation's central bank said yesterday. Reserves totalled US$251.14 billion at the end of March and US$246.63 billion at the end of February, a central bank statement said. The increase mainly reflected returns from foreign exchange reserve management, substantial foreign capital inflows and the appreciation of the yen and other major currencies against the US dollar, it added.

■ NT closes higher
The New Taiwan dollar continued to gain ground against its US counterpart, rising NT$0.049 to close at NT$31.140 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$1.32 billion.

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