Chinese owned 3.4b bank cards

Chinese owned about 3.4 billion bank cards by the end of September, according to data from the central bank on Monday.

The People's Bank of China said in a report on the country's banking payment service that banks and financial institutions had issued about 3.4 billion bank cards by the end of the third quarter, up 21.2 percent from a year earlier.

The rise was a 5.4 percent increase from the end of June, the bank said.

A total of 3.1 billion debit cards have been issued by banks, up 21.4 percent year-on-year, while 318 million credit cards were issued, an increase of 18.8 percent.

In the third quarter, a total of 10.1 billion transactions worth 88.2 trillion yuan ($14 trillion) were made through bank cards, up 5.2 percent year-on-year, according to the bank's report. This increase is 27.2 percentage points lower than for the same period of last year.

Central bank data shows the total lines extended to credit card holders increased 36 percent year-on-year to 3.3 trillion yuan by the end of September. Credit card loans more than six months overdue rose 1.2 billion from the end of June to 14.4 billion yuan.