Credit card spending in Taiwan reached the third-highest monthly level in November last year in the nation’s banking history, according to the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC).
Credit card holders in Taiwan spent NT$212.5 billion (US$6.64 billion) in November, up 6.46 percent from a month earlier and 14.93 percent from a year earlier, the commission said.
It was the third-highest figure in Taiwan’s banking history, after the NT$263.5 billion recorded in June last year and NT$242.5 billion in June 2015.
The increase in credit spending resulted partly from aggressive promotional campaigns launched by department stores to celebrate anniversaries, FSC Banking Bureau Deputy Director Sherri Chuang (莊秀媛) said.
Many travel agencies unveiled early bird-deals for winter holiday’s and the Lunar New Year holiday, prompting people to get out their credit cards, Chuang said.
In the first 11 months of last year, credit card spending in Taiwan totaled NT$2.2 trillion, which was close to the NT$2.231 trillion spent for the whole of 2015, the commission said.
As of the end of Nov. l, there were 36 authorized credit card issuers in Taiwan and 26.87 million cards, the commission said.
In November alone, overdue credit card debt totaled NT$440 million and the overdue loan ratio was 0.26 percent among the 36 issuers, compared with a debt of NT$320 million the previous month and an overdue loan ratio of 0.28 percent, it said.
Electronic credit card payments totaled NT$6.47 billion in November, down 5.27 percent from a month earlier, but up 12.33 percent from a year earlier, the commission said.
Six firms, including two banks, were providing third-party electronic credit card payment business in Taiwan as of the end of November, the commission said.
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