E.Sun Commercial Bank (玉山銀行) was the biggest issuer of new credit cards among local banks in September, for a third consecutive month, thanks to new programs featuring mobile payment and big rewards for online shopping.
The banking unit of E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) issued 181,405 new cards in September, or 25 percent of all 723,056 cards issued, compared with the 127,293 and 155,055 cards it issued in July and August respectively, Financial Supervisory Commission data showed.
The bank’s U Bear card, launched in July and targeting younger consumers, was the first card to focus on rewards for online shopping.
Cardholders earn NT$5 (US$0.16) for every NT$100 spent on online and can earn 8 percent on purchases made at the nation’s four convenience store chains, E.Sun said yesterday.
The bank in August introduced a co-branded card with Kaohsiung Hanshin Arena Store (漢神巨蛋購物廣場), plus another card focused on travel miles benefits.
All the new cards can be integrated into a mobile wallet app that allows cardholders to pay with their mobile devices, helping reducing concern about losing the physical cards, the bank said.
Its co-branded card with Pi Mobile Technology Inc (拍付國際), which was launched in August last year and provides cardholders up to 4.5 credit points for every NT$100 spent, remains popular, the bank said.
The robust growth in its new credit card business boosted its net fee income from credit card sector to NT$4.87 billion for the first nine months of the year, up 30.3 percent year-on-year, E.Sun said.
Bank SinoPac (永豐銀行) came in second in new card issuance in September, with 109,367 cards, followed by Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) with 82,642, commission data showed.
E.Sun Bank outperformed rivals with its new card programs between July and September, Banking Bureau Deputy Director-General Huang Kuang-hsi (黃光熙) said on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, state-run Taiwan Business Bank (台企銀) is leading its peers in canceling cards that have not been used in more than a year, with 112,327 cards canceled so far, Huang said.
Overall, CTBC Bank (中國信託銀行), the banking arm of CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控), remained first in terms of the number of cards in circulation at the end of September, with 6.75 million cards, followed by Cathay United Bank with 6.66 million and E.Sun Bank with 5.53 million, data showed.
Credit card spending totaled NT$253 billion in September for a cumulative total of NT$2.39 trillion for the first nine months of the year, setting both monthly and cumulative records, Huang said.
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