After five consecutive years of growth since 2003, China's credit card market finally started its adjustment in 2008. And since the beginning of the second half of that year China's banks have been cutting their issue of credit cards because the global financial crisis and the degradation of international credit market and thus that banks needed to control risks.
As a result, the increase of issue of credit cards was down more than 50% from a year ago. But the absolute number of credit cards still went beyond 150 million in China in 2008 in spite of the slowdown of issue.
The major credit-card brands in China include: China UnionPay, VISA, MasterCard, American Express, and JCB.
The market shares of which were UnionPay 64.6%, VISA 18.0%, MasterCard 15.2%, American Express 0.7%, and JCB 1.6% by the end of November 2008. (see graphic on left)
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