Credit card spending grew 11 percent year-on-year to NT$2.93 trillion (US$97.33 billion) for the first 11 months of last year and is expected to surpass NT$3 trillion for the whole of last year, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said yesterday.
The rise in credit card spending could be attributed to banks’ reward programs, more conventional stores and transportation systems accepting cards, and the popularity of mobile payment tools, the commission said.
Among the nation’s 34 banks, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) was first in terms of card payments in November last year, with a total of NT$41.76 billion, followed by CTBC Bank (中國信託銀行, NT$38.5 billion) and E.Sun Commercial Bank (玉山銀行, NT$38.27 billion), FSC data showed.
Citibank Taiwan Ltd (花旗台灣銀行) was first among foreign banks in terms of credit card spending, with NT$19.18 billion, followed by HSBC Bank (Taiwan) Ltd (匯豐台灣商銀, NT$5.81 billion), DBS Bank Taiwan (星展銀行, NT$3.38 billion) and Standard Chartered Bank Taiwan Ltd (渣打台灣銀行, NT$3.15 billion), the data showed.
Banks in Taiwan issued a combined 744,442 cards, with the top three issuers being E.Sun Bank, Taishin International Bank (台新銀行) and Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (台北富邦銀行), which between them issued more than 100,000 cards, the data showed.
CTBC Bank, the banking arm of CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控), remained first in terms of the number of cards in circulation as of the end of November with 6.83 million, followed by Cathay United (6.74 million) and E.Sun (5.73 million), the data showed.
The number of people using electronic payments totaled 6.53 million, up 59 percent from a year earlier, while spending increased 38 percent to NT$3.94 billion, the data showed.
Line Pay Money, the electronic payment service offered by LINE Biz+ Taiwan Ltd (連加網路) and iPass Corp (一卡通票證), was first in terms of number of users at 1.95 million, while Jkopay Co (街口電子支付) was first in terms of total payments at NT$1.38 billion, the data showed.
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