BANGKOK, 14 May 2014 – The Bank of Thailand (BOT) has reported that a total of 380,000 new credit cards were issued during the first quarter of 2014 while the value of debts in the system decreased by 7.41% or 21 billion baht.
The BOT said however the Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) surged by 687 million baht or 10.35% from the previous quarter to stand at 7.3 billion baht. Out of the NPL figures, 5.19 billion baht generated from commercial bank credit cards, an increase of 523 million baht or 11.29%, while credit cards of non-bank institutions generated smaller debts with a rise of only 125 million baht in the first quarter. The central bank indicated NPLs resulting from the use of non-bank credit cards stood at 2.1 billion baht.
Overall, the credit card spending in the first quarter of this year was at 131 billion baht, a decrease of 20.6 billion baht from the previous quarter, the BOT reported, adding that most or about 100 billion baht of the spending was made within the country, a decrease of 20.8 billion baht or 16.26%.
