Banking

China's credit cards maintain low bad debt rates

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-07-02 10:28

BEIJING - China' s credit cards risks remain low as figures show bad debt rates stood at 2.3 percent as of the end of the first quarter, while that for the United States and Singapore were at 9.95 and 4.7 percent, an official with China' s banking regulator told Xinhua Thursday.

Related readings:  Bad debt, late payments on credit cards surge to 8.8b  Number of Macao's RMB credit cards up?90% in 2009  Lenders develop cold feet on credit cards  Central bank tightens control on credit cards

Credit card receivables that are 180 days past due accounted for 0.4 percent of the total credit amount in the first quarter, said an official with the China Banking Regulatory Commission.

China had issued a total of 186 million credit cards by the end of 2009, up 30.37 percent from one year earlier, according to data from the China Banking Association.