3.6m credit card holders as of June

KUALA LUMPUR: There are 3.6 million main credit card holders in Malaysia as at the end of June, said Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Lee Chee Leong.

Based on statistics issued by the Department of Statistics, Malaysia for 2016, the figure accounted for 18% out of the 20 million Malaysians aged between 20 and 74.

“As at end of June, the outstanding balance for credit cards was RM36.9 billion, of which 7.3% or RM2.7 billion was overdue balance.

“The remaining outstanding balance exceeding the repayment date not exceeding three months is 6.2%, valued at RM2.3 billion, while the balance that exceeded three months is 1.1% and valued at RM0.4 billion,” he said during the question-and-answer session at the Dewan Negara sitting here yesterday.

He was replying to Senator Datuk Jaspal Singh on the percentage of the populace having credit cards, the amount of unpaid credit card debt and number of insolvent cases.

Lee said generally, 43.6% of card holders settled their credit card debts fully from last January to June.

Another 43.6% paid at least 5% of the outstanding balance during the same period, while the remaining 12.8% did not pay the outstanding balance of the minimum payment before or during the payment date.

On the number of insolvent cases, Lee said 845 individuals, aged less than 30, were declared bankrupt in the first half of the year.

Replying to a supplementary question from Jaspal Singh pertaining to the ministry’s monitoring of online gambling cases involving the use of credit cards, he said Bank Negara Malaysia had issued guidelines requiring credit card issuers to restrict any transactions for such activities. – Bernama