Despite recent enormous growth, the local credit card market still offers potential for local commercial banks, Tuoi Tre Online newspaper reported.

According to the State Bank of Vietnam, as of the third quarter of last year, 147.3 million bank cards had been issued, an increase of 20 million cards year-on-year.

Of these, there had been only 4.6 million credit cards conducting transactions valued at nearly VND50 trillion, a 50% surge over the one year-ago period.

Banks have rushed to issue credit cards with preferential policies, as part of a race to lure more customers to increase their market shares.

According to financial experts, the development of tourism and online shopping has fueled Vietnamese consumers’ demand for payments via credit cards.

In addition, banks can earn large profits from credit card services due to higher interest rates, compared to normal loans, and service fees.

Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank (VPBank), one of the major card issuing agencies on the market with 18% of the value of total transactions, issued more than 240,000 credit cards last year, up 20% over 2017. The bank reported an outstanding balance for credit of nearly VND6 trillion by last year, up 50% versus the previous year.

A VPBank representative said the bank has launched new credit card services and expanded its network to promote the development of its credit card services. 

SGT