May. 23, 2012 (China Knowledge) – China saw the issue of bank cards surged 21.5% YoY to 3.1 billion in the first quarter of this year, according to the latest report released by People's Bank of China.

The growth rate for the three-month period was 3.8 percentage points higher than in the corresponding period of 2011.

Of the total cards, 2.81 billion were debit cards, reflecting a YoY increase 21.7% or a 5.6% growth than in the fourth quarter of 2011.

While the issue of credit card totaled 290 million, up 20% than a year earlier and the growth rate decreased 5.7 percentage points than that of Q1 2011.

By the end of March 2012, the total amount of credit cards’ limit grew 33.2% YoY to RMB 2.79 trillion.