Market, page 20, issue 412, March 30, 2009
Translated by Liu Peng
Original article: [Chinese]

Credit card defaults in Shanghai climbed to 2.42% by the end of 2008, or 45% higher than the same period in the previous year, said Shanghai's local branch of China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), the country's banking watchdog in late March.

The commission's local branch had presented risk notices to all of Shanghai's commercial banks and their credit card management centers, requiring them to strengthen supervision over card issuance, which ballooned in 2008.

Public data showed that Shanghai's domestic banks issued over 8 million credit cards in 2008, up around 73% higher than the beginning of the year. There were 32.5 million credit card numbers in Shanghai by the end of 2008, approaching two cards for each local residents on average.

In response to the rise in defaults, some domestic banks like China Construction Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of Communications and China Merchants Bank had recently become more cautious in issuing credit cards.

But others, such as regional banks like Bank of Ningbo, Ping'an Bank, Bank of Nanjing and Bank of Beijing, were still expanding credit card issuance and pushing related marketing strategies.

"As a regional bank, promoting retail banking is our leading business, within which credit cards is our top priority," said one representative from the Bank of Ningbo. "As a late comer to the business, we must intensify our efforts in this sector," they added.

By the end of 2008, there were 150 million credit cards in China.