Transactions within the country decreased by 7.73pcOverseas use of Bangladeshi credit cards increases in Sep

The use of Bangladesh-issued credit cards for transactions abroad surged by 4.52% in September this year compared to the previous month, totalling the amount Tk4,368 million.

The highest volume of such transactions – Tk728 million took place in India, according to the latest Bangladesh Bank report on credit card spending.

Released on Tuesday, the report titled “An Overview of Credit Card Users Spending Pattern Within and Outside the Country” mentions that 43 scheduled banks and one non-bank financial institution (NBFI) in the country are currently issuing cards for their clients.

According to the data, the credit card transactions within the country, however, decreased by 7.73% during the period. The data showed that while the amount in August was Tk24,376 million, it dropped to Tk22,493 million in September.

On the other hand, the Bangladeshi credit card transactions outside the country soared to Tk4,368 million from Tk 4,179 million in August..

Analysing the country-wise transactions, it is observed that the Bangladeshi credit cardholders used their cards mostly in neighbouring country India where around 16.66% of the cross border transactions took place.

The remaining cross border transactions happened in the USA (15.90%), the UAE (8.90%), Thailand (8.56%), the UK (7.70%), Singapore (7.36%), Canada (6.84%), Malaysia (4.07%), Saudi Arabia (3.47%), Netherlands (2.82%), Ireland (2.64%), Australia (2.34%) and other countries (12.76%).

Spending categories

The cardholders mostly used credit cards in departmental stores for retail purchases. In September, about 48.54% of the credit card transactions took place in departmental stores in the country while about 12.85% happened in retail outlet services, 9.23% in utilities, 8.64% in cash withdrawal, 5.94%  in drug and pharmacies, 4.87% in clothing stores, 3.54% in transportation, 3.11% for fund transfer, 2.20% in business services and 1.07% in professional and government services.

For transactions abroad, 71.66% of the credit card transactions took place using VISA card, about 17.34% using Mastercard, 10.74% AMEX card and the remaining transactions used other types of cards.

Card usage by foreigners

In September, among all the foreign nationals, US citizens carried out the highest amount of transactions in Bangladesh through credit cards, shows the central bank report.

During the month, among all the foreign credit cards, the US credit cards had the maximum amount of transactions in Bangladesh, which is 22.12% of the total amount.

The rest of the transactions using cards issued by other countries include India (12.04%), the UK (11.83%), Singapore (4.83%), China (4.16%), Japan (4.08%), Canada (3.46%), Australia (2.62%), the UAE (2.57%), South Korea (2.18%), Germany (2.17%), Malaysia (1.61%), Italy (1.59%) and other countries (24.76%).