Consumers have been cautious in making credit-card purchases but have enjoyed receiving cash advances, the latest Bank of Thailand (BOT) statistics show.

Following a decline in August, total spending via credit cards fell 3.64 per cent in September to Bt59.3 billion.

Though total spending fell - largely as a result of lower domestic spending - cash advances and credit-card spending abroad continued to rise.

Domestic credit-card spending fell 6.4 per cent in September to Bt42.6 billion, while spending abroad rose by 2.5 per cent to Bt2.2 billion and cash advances increased by 4.6 per cent to Bt14.5 billion.

Tarisa Watanagase, BOT governor-designate, said last week the central bank would soon announce a package of credit-card regulations as requested by the Credit Card Club. However, she said the regulations would not cover supplementary cards.

"I want to wait to see the results of the new package first," she added.

According to the BOT's data, total spending mainly declined in cards issued by non-bank companies, which fell 5.3 per cent to Bt19.6 billion. Spending fell 2.1 per cent on cards issued by Thai banks, but at Bt32 billion they were still the market leaders.

Spending on cards issued by foreign banks fell 5.6 per cent to Bt7.6billion.

Thai bank-issued cards had the highest decline in actual purchases at 6.8 per cent, but at Bt21.3 billion were still market leaders by volume. Purchasing on non-bank cards was valued at Bt15 billion, down six per cent, while purchases on foreign-bank cards was valued at Bt6.3 billion, down 6.4 per cent.

Cash advances increased 9.6 per cent to Bt9.9 billion on cards issued by Thai banks. But advances on non-bank cards and foreign-bank cards fell by 5.2 per cent and 3.5 per cent to Bt3.7 billion and Bt886 million, respectively.

Spending abroad on non-bank cards and foreign-bank cards rose by 7 per cent and 2 per cent to Bt950.4 million and Bt425.3 million, respectively, while overseas spending on Thai-bank issued cards fell by 2.2 per cent to Bt800 million.

Outstanding balances totalled  Bt160.4 billion as of June, a one-per-cent increase on the previous month, while 10.66 million credit cards were active in the Kingdom at that time, a 0.7-per-cent increase on May.

Anoma Srisukkasem

The Nation