China’s Credit Card Market is far from Saturated

The latest payment report released by PBOC shows that by the end of 2014Q1, the cumulative number of bank cards issued reached 4.39 billion. Debit cards are still the most widely used card type, accounting for approximately at 3.97 billion.

The number of cumulative credit cards issued is only 0.41 billion, which means there is a huge market opportunity.

According to the report, every Chinese citizen holds 2.93 debit cards on average, while credit card volume is only one per three citizens. The gap has left a significant development space for credit cards market. In addition, credit has penetrated consumers’ habits gradually in recent years. People start to utilize credit cards to do online shopping, daily shopping etc. With this in mind, we estimate that China’s credit card market will keep its dramatic growth in the coming future.