Online Boom Drives 4.8% Increase in Q1 Card Usage... Corporate Earnings Decline

Q1 Personal 242 Trillion Won... 5.9% Increase YoY
Impact of Online Shopping and Overseas Travel Activation
Corporations 48 Trillion Won... 0.5% Decrease Due to Performance Contraction

With the continuation of non-face-to-face activities and an increase in travel, card approval amounts in the first quarter of this year rose compared to last year. On the other hand, corporate card approval amounts slightly decreased due to weakened corporate performance.

According to the Credit Finance Association on the 30th, the total card approval amount in the first quarter of this year was 290.9 trillion KRW, an increase of 4.8% compared to the same period last year. During the same period, the number of card approval transactions was 6.77 billion, up 6.2% from the previous year.

The improvement in card usage performance was due to the activation of online shopping and overseas travel. The Credit Finance Association stated, “The growth in online sales was mainly seen in essential daily life sectors such as food and beverages and agricultural, livestock, and fishery products, and the expansion of O2O (Online to Offline) services led to an increase in the purchase of mobile tickets and gift certificates.” They added, “With the normalization of overseas travel, the performance of travel-related industries such as airlines and duty-free shops also rose.”

Looking at detailed items, non-face-to-face and online purchases continued to increase, resulting in a 4.9% rise in card approval amounts in wholesale and retail trade. Additionally, due to increased travel, card approval amounts in the transportation industry increased by 14.9%. Card approval amounts in business facility management and business support services, which include the travel industry, also surged by 20.5%.

In the first quarter of this year, the approval amount and number of transactions for personal cards were 242.2 trillion KRW and approximately 6.4 billion, respectively, increasing by 5.9% and 6.4% compared to the same period last year. In contrast, corporate card approval amounts were 48.8 trillion KRW, down 0.5% from the previous year. The number of corporate card approval transactions was 380 million, up 1.9%.

Jang Myung-hyun, a senior researcher at the Credit Finance Association, explained, “The decrease in corporate card approval amounts is due to reduced expenses such as tax payments as corporate operating profits have shrunk.” He added, “Although there are various adverse factors and uncertainties, it seems that our economy is still being stimulated starting from private consumption.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.