Over 3 bln debit cards issued in China

Chinese banks have issued 3.08 billion debit cards by the end of September, a central bank report showed on Monday. A total of 3.4 billion bank cards have been issued by the end of the third quarter this year, including 318 million credit cards, an increase of 18.8 percent from a year ago, the People\'s Bank of China (PBOC) said in a report on its official website. Compared with the level a year ago, the growth in debit cards has accelerated 3.8 percentage points while that of credit cards slowed 1.5 percentage points, said the bank. In the third quarter, a total of 10.08 billion transactions worth 88.2 trillion yuan (14 trillion U.S. dollars) were made through bank card payments, while per capita bank card consumption reached 4,151.97 yuan in the three-month period, according to the PBOC report. Meanwhile, credit card loans that were more than six months overdue rose 8.8 percent quarter on quarter to hit 14.43 billion yuan, accounting for 1.4 percent of all credit loans outstanding, at the end of September.