Kyeshin Financial Association
Card Approval Performance in October 2020
[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] Despite the impact of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), the amount of card approvals increased last October. However, consumption in most sectors except for wholesale and retail, such as online shopping, was sluggish.
According to the 'October 2020 Total Card Approval Performance' released on the 5th by the Credit Finance Association's Credit Finance Research Institute, the amount of card approvals last October was 77.3 trillion KRW, up 5.4% from 73.4 trillion KRW in the same month last year. However, the number of approvals decreased by 2.3% compared to the previous year.
The amount of card approvals decreased by 4.3% in March and 5.2% in April compared to the previous year due to the impact of COVID-19, but turned to a recovery trend from May thanks to the government's disaster relief funds. Since then, it has maintained an increasing trend for six months until last October.
The average payment amount per transaction in October was 52,752 KRW for credit cards and 23,359 KRW for check cards, increasing by 7.7% and 8.7% respectively compared to the same month last year. In particular, corporate cards surged 15.6% to 127,086 KRW from 109,917 KRW in the same month last year.
By industry, the amount of approvals in wholesale and retail increased by 14.8% compared to the previous year. This is analyzed to be due to the increase in non-face-to-face and online shopping despite the decrease in offline sales caused by COVID-19.
On the other hand, transportation (56.5%), business facility management and business support services (44.0%), etc., decreased significantly. Accommodation and food services decreased by 9.5%, associations and organizations, repair and other personal services by 7.1%, arts, sports and leisure-related services by 4.2%, and education services by 4.1%, all down compared to the previous year.
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