HIGH RISK: Few cards have been issued since the FSC marked the product ‘high-risk’ in 2005, with banks instead offering their cash-strapped clients revolving credit lines

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 11, 2019
By: Kao Shih-ching  /  Staff reporter

Cash advance cards are losing importance in the local financial market, with outstanding debt dropping to a new low last year, Financial Supervisory Commission’s (FSC) data showed.

By the end of last year, 384,771 valid cash advance cards had been issued by 16 local banks, with combined outstanding loans falling 7.97 percent to NT$17.35 billion (US$564 million), from NT$18.85 billion at the end of 2017, the lowest level since the commission started collecting the data in 2004.

The non-performing loans (NPL) ratio for the cards and bad loans written off continued to decline last year to 0.885 percent and NT$403.76 million respectively, the data showed.

In comparison, 29.57 million valid credit cards had been issued by 34 banks and total card spending reached NT$242.18 billion by the end of last year, the data showed.
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