Bad debts hit credit card sector

While the number of credit cards keeps growing in China, overdue payments and non-performing loan ratios for credit cards also are soaring, Beijing-based Web portal NetEase said in a report published on Thursday.

Statistics from the People's Bank of China, the central bank, showed that credit-card debt at least six months overdue rose to 25.19 billion yuan ($4 billion) at the end of 2013, up 71.86 percent from the previous year.

The average credit card NPL ratio of nine selected commercial banks reached 1.44 percent in 2013, rising 0.16 percentage points over 2012's figure. It was also higher than the average NPL ratio of 1 percent for commercial banks reported at the end of December.