China's bank card issuance at 5.44 billion

A Chinese woman shows credit cards and other bank cards in Qionghai city, south Chinas Hainan province, April 14 2012. [Photo/IC]

BEIJING - The total number of bank cards issued by China's financial institutions reached 5.44 billion at the end of last year, putting average per capita bank card ownership at 3.99, latest data from the central bank showed on Tuesday.

Debit card issuance reached 5.1 billion and credit cards totaled 432 million, according to a report released by the People's Bank of China.

As of the end of 2015, financial institutions had extended 7.08 trillion yuan ($1.1 trillion) in credit to credit card owners, increasing 26.4 percent year on year.

Credit card loans that were more than six months overdue accounted for 1.23 percent of the total credit loans outstanding, down 0.3 percentage points from the ratio seen a year earlier, the central bank said.