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CTBC Remains Taiwan's Largest Credit Card Issuer in February 2014

2014/04/23 | By Judy Li

CTBC Bank issued 5.654 million credit cards as of the end of February, remaining the largest credit card issuer in Taiwan, with 3.589 million effective cards for a sharp increase of about 280,000 within only two months, according to the statistics released by the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC).

Insiders say that CTBC Bank's cooperation with Pxmart, a popular supermarket chain in Taiwan, to accept the bank's credit cards is the main reasons for the sharp rise of the effective cards in February.

Cathay United Bank saw the number of effective cards grow to 3.099 million in February and 3.127 million in March, still less than that of CTBC. Cathay works with Costco Taiwan to jointly issue affinity cards that have so far reached 920,000, hence boosting the bank's credit card transactions to a certain extent.

In February CTBC's card transactions came to NT$24.4 billion (US$813.33 million), the highest among Taiwan's card issuers; and Cathay followed with NT$21.3 billion (US$710 million).

It's noteworthy that Taishin International Bank outpaced Citibank Taiwan to become the third largest credit card issuer here by issuing 3.477 million credit cards as of the end of February with 2.177 million being effective. (JL)