China has over 7 billion bank cards

BEIJING — China had issued 7.03 billion bank cards by the end of 2017, meaning each Chinese person has about 5 cards on average, according to a new industry report.

The total number was up 10.3 percent from a year earlier, said the report released by the China Banking Association.

Last year, the number of transactions via bank cards rose 29.4 percent to 149 billion, with a total of 735 trillion yuan (about $113 trillion) swiped from bank cards.

"Consumption via bank cards accounted for 48.7 percent in China's total retail sales of consumer goods, rising for a fourth year, giving a strong boost to consumption growth and upgrades," said Huang Runzhong, secretary general of the association.

Meanwhile, the ratio of live debit cards reversed the downward trend for two years to 66.2 percent in 2017.

That ratio of live credit cards rose to 73.1 percent last year, showing higher quality of the bank card industry, the report said.