By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter
Per capita credit and debit card issuance in the country is the second highest in the world, the Bank of Korea said Tuesday.
A total of 183 million plastic cards have been issued in the country, with credit cards numbering 92 million and check and debit cards accounting for the rest, the bank said in a report.
This means every person has an average of 3.78 cards, trailing only the United States with 5.3. Singapore was third with 2.98 and Britain fourth with 2.36.
"Credit card use is much more popular in Korea, while debit cards are used more in countries such as Japan, Germany and the Netherlands,'' a bank official said.
The report also said South Korea has a low level of cash possession in the private sector. The private cash-M1 ratio was 5.8 percent, the second lowest among the 14 major economies and trailing Britain's 4.5 percent. M1 measures the amount of money in circulation plus checks circulating in the economy.
Average cash possession per capita remained flat at $482, less than one-fifth of that of the United States at $2,736.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of credit cards in South Korea. In April 1978, Korea Exchange Bank launched a credit card center in its foreign currency operation department and began to issue VISA cards, which were available only to overseas travelers at that time.
The real era of plastic money began four years later, as several banks jointly set up BC Card. Conglomerates like Samsung and LG also joined the fray around the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics.
Domestic credit card use amounted to 398.2 trillion won ($380 billion) last year.