Credit card spending hit a record NT$528.14 billion (US$17 billion) last month due to higher tax payments, the online payment information portal cardu.com.tw reported on Monday, citing statistics provided by the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC).
Last month’s figure rose 50.64 percent from NT$350.6 billion the previous month and surged 99.72 percent from NT$264.4 billion a year earlier, the report said.
The information portal attributed the increase to more people using credit cards to pay their taxes on the back of incentives and rewards offered by most financial institutions.
Photo: Lin Hsin-jo, Taipei Times
Ministry of Finance statistics showed that tax returns filed via credit cards reached NT$199.32 billion, up 37.36 percent from a year earlier and accounting for 81.7 percent of total income tax payments.
That helped boost total card spending in the first six months of the year to NT$2.1 trillion, up 36.4 percent from NT$1.54 trillion a year earlier and hitting the highest for the same period on record.
If the momentum continues in the following months, aided by the robust travel payments, this year’s credit card spending is expected to surpass the NT$4 trillion mark, the information portal said.
Among major card issuers, CTBC Bank (中國信託銀行) led its local peers, with credit card spending of NT$121.79 billion last month, followed by Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) with NT$85.48 billion and E.Sun Commercial Bank (玉山銀行) with NT$83.28 billion, FSC data showed.
Taishin International Bank (台新銀行) ranked fourth with NT$61.02 billion, ahead of Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (台北富邦銀行) with NT$44.41 billion, the data showed.
The top five card issuers also led credit card spending in Taiwan in the first six months, with CTBC’s figure rising 58 percent year-on-year to NT$381.16 billion, Cathay United increasing 43 percent to NT$362.78 billion and E.Sun expanding 34 percent to NT$284.16 billion.
Taishin advanced 32 percent to NT$227.25 billion and Fubon rose 28 percent to NT$206.24 billion, the data showed.
As of last month, Taiwan had 59.86 million credit cards in circulation, up from 59.6 million the previous month, the commission said.
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