Credit card spending rose 12.01 percent year-on-year to NT$453.4 billion (US$14.5 billion), a record high for the month of October, driven by department store anniversary sales and increased travel, shopping and dining opportunities during the Mid-Autumn Festival, Double Ten National Day and Retrocession Day holidays, data released by the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) showed yesterday.
Cumulative credit card spending in the first 10 months of this year totaled NT$4.14 trillion, up 6.63 percent from the NT$3.88 trillion registered during the same period last year, also marking the highest for the same period on record, commission data showed.
If the spending momentum remains strong alongside the usual year-end shopping season, full-year credit card spending could surpass the record level of NT$4.68 trillion set last year, according to market watchers.
Photo: Taipei Times file photo
As of the end of October, Taiwan had 60.48 million credit cards in circulation issued by 32 financial institutions, up 3.1 percent year-on-year, the commission said.
The balance of revolving credit was NT$117.9 billion and the amount of the undue balance of installment was NT$211.6 billion, it said. The nonperforming ratio of credit card debt was 0.25 percent on average as of October, down 0.04 percentage points from a year earlier, it added.
In October, CTBC Bank Co (中國信託銀行) led all banks in terms of credit card spending at NT$80.1 billion, followed by Cathay United Bank Co (國泰世華銀行) at NT$79.08 billion, the commission’s data showed.
E.Sun Commercial Bank Ltd (玉山銀行) ranked third with credit card spending of NT$63.83 billion in the month, ahead of Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank Co (台北富邦銀行) at NT$56.55 billion and Taishin International Bank Co (台新銀行) at NT$48.77 billion, data showed.
On the other hand, CTBC was the biggest issuer of new credit cards among local banks in October, thanks to its new co-branded credit card partnership with food conglomerate Uni-President Enterprises Corp (統一企業). The bank issued 168,834 cards in the month, or 30.84 percent of all 547,476 cards issued, commission data showed.
E.Sun came in second in new card issuance in October at 62,591 cards, followed by Taishin at 51,185, Cathay United at 42,223 and DBS Bank Taiwan Ltd (星展銀行) at 38,079, data showed.
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