BANGKOK, 15 April 2012 – The Bank of Thailand (BoT) has reported a considerable drop in the monthly credit card usage for February 2012 despite an increased number of credit cards issued, especially by non-bank providers.
The BoT has disclosed that there were a total of 15.43 million credit cards as of February 2012, an increase of 170,000 from January. The highest increase was seen in the non-bank sector at 7.51 million, followed by Thai commercial banks at 6.44 million, and foreign commercial banks in Thailand at 1.47 million.
Meanwhile, credit card spending in February stood at 99.91 billion baht, a 1.5 billion-baht drop from January when the total transaction value stood at 101.43 billion baht. However, February 2012’s figure is slightly higher in comparison with the total value of 90.02 billion baht spent in the same month of last year. Transactions made with Thai commercial bank cards were as high as 60 billion baht, followed by non-bank credit cards at 26.86 billion baht.
The monthly credit card cash advance figure stood at around 12.44 billion baht, while unpaid credit card loan stood at 213.5 billion baht, with Thai commercial banks accounting for the highest share of over 90 billion baht, followed by non-bank credit cards at 86 billion baht.
