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Cheques continues dominance over plastic cards in India
New Delhi, Oct 12: With people still showing reluctance in following a paperless route, cheque transactions have outnumbered credit and debit cards payment in India even as banks continued to roll out such plastic cards, according to the Asian Banker Journal.
New Delhi, Oct 12: With people still showing reluctance in following a paperless route, cheque transactions have outnumbered credit and debit cards payment in India even as banks continued to roll out such plastic cards, according to the Asian Banker Journal.
In its latest issue, the journal said that in India, the volume of transactions through cheques stood at 832.1 million, whereas through credit cards it was placed at 5.3 million and through debit cards it was four million in 2002.
"Cash still remains the principal option for payments in regions like India, Phillipines and China," ABJ said. Asked about the trend, banking sources told a news agency that the problem was on account of limited number of card accepting points and the apprehensions over high interest rate on the cards, while a small section admit that people were rather scared of frauds.
"There has been no dramatic transformation in Asia's retail payments arena in the last three years, though several emerging economies -- India and China -- principally witness material increases in payment instrument penetration over the period," it said. The number of credit cards in circulation in India had increased to a whopping 158 per cent, a rise of 5.3 million as compared to the levels in 1999, the journal said, adding it was still "negligible" with a penetration of 0.005 per population.
In the case of debit cards, which is relatively a late entrant in the Indian banking industry, the growth was 83 per cent to four million, it added. Bureau Report
"Cash still remains the principal option for payments in regions like India, Phillipines and China," ABJ said. Asked about the trend, banking sources told a news agency that the problem was on account of limited number of card accepting points and the apprehensions over high interest rate on the cards, while a small section admit that people were rather scared of frauds.
"There has been no dramatic transformation in Asia's retail payments arena in the last three years, though several emerging economies -- India and China -- principally witness material increases in payment instrument penetration over the period," it said. The number of credit cards in circulation in India had increased to a whopping 158 per cent, a rise of 5.3 million as compared to the levels in 1999, the journal said, adding it was still "negligible" with a penetration of 0.005 per population.
In the case of debit cards, which is relatively a late entrant in the Indian banking industry, the growth was 83 per cent to four million, it added. Bureau Report