3.6 million credit card holders in Malaysia as at June

Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Lee Chee Leong said, based on statistics released by the Department of Statistics, Malaysia, in 2016, the number accounted for 18 per cent of 20 million Malaysians between the ages of 20 and 74.

"As of the end of June, the outstanding balance of the credit card is RM36.9 billion, of which 7.3 per cent or RM2.7 billion was overdue balance," he said during a question-and-answer session at the Dewan Negara here yesterday.

Lee said the remaining balance exceeded the repayment date, not exceeding three months was at 6.2 per cent, valued at RM2.3 billion, while the balance that exceeded three months was at 1.1 per cent and valued at RM0.4 billion.

He was replying to a question from Senator Datuk Jaspal Singh on the percentage of populace having credit cards, the amount of unpaid credit card debt and number of insolvent cases.

Lee said generally, 43.6 per cent of card holders settled their credit card debt fully from last January to June.

Another 43.6 per cent paid at least five per cent of the outstanding balance during the same period and the remaining 12.8 per cent did not pay the outstanding balance of the minimum payment before or during the payment date.

On the number of insolvent cases, Lee said 845 individuals, mostly over the age of 30, were declared bankrupt in the first half of the year.

Replying to a supplementary question from Jaspal Singh pertaining the ministry's monitoring of online gambling cases involving the use of credit cards, he said Bank Negara Malaysia has issued guidelines requiring credit card issuers to restrict any transactions for such activities, identified through business category code.