Overseas transactions using credit cards issued by Bangladesh’s commercial banks totalled Tk5,793 million in December 2023, about 19% increase from the previous month, according to Bangladesh Bank report.

In November 2023, the total transactions abroad using Bangladeshi banks-issued credit cards amounted to Tk4,874 million.

The central bank released the report titled “An Overview of Credit Card Users Spending Pattern Within and Outside the Country”.

It mentioned that 43 scheduled banks and one non-bank financial institution (NBFIs) in the country are currently issuing cards for their clients.

According to the data, the credit card transactions within the country also increased by 5.29%, amounting to Tk26,744 million in December compared to Tk25,399 million in November 2023.

On the other hand, transactions made with credit cards issued by foreign entities but utilised within Bangladesh dropped to Tk1,841 million in December from Tk1,938 million in November 2023.

The data showed that transactions using Bangladeshi banks-issued credit cards outside the country were over 3 times more in December than the transactions by foreign nationals within Bangladesh.

The country-wise figures of transactions showed that the overseas transactions through Bangladeshi credit cards mostly happened in the neighbouring country India.

The international transactions which took place in India during the time amounted to Tk1156 million, about 20% of total cross border transactions by the Bangladesh-issued credit card users.

The second highest transactions happened in United States (US), 12.63%, followed by United Arab Emirates (UAE) 10.25%, Thailand 10.08%, Singapore 6.91%, Saudi Arabia 6.38%, United Kingdom (UK) 5.88%, Canada 5.53%, Malaysia 3.72%, Australia 2.62%, Netherlands 2.23%, Ireland 2.14%, and other countries 11.66%.

Spending categories

The spending habits of credit cardholders engaging in cross-border transactions mirrored the domestic pattern.

These cardholders predominantly utilised their cards in departmental stores, accounting for approximately 28.25% of transactions abroad, said the Bangladesh Bank report.

Other notable categories included retail outlet services 15.66%, drug and pharmacies 12.90%, cash withdrawal 9.69%, clothing 8.59%, transportation 6.95% and various other categories 24.91%.

For transactions, VISA and Mastercard were the prime choices for cross-border transactions. 77.46% of the credit card transactions took place using VISA card, about 13.90% Mastercard, 8.61% AMEX card and remaining transactions took place using other types of cards.

Card usage by foreigners

In December, among all the foreign nationals, US citizens carried out the highest amount of transactions in Bangladesh through credit cards, showed the central bank report.

The transactions carried out by US citizens was 25.38% of total transactions by the foreign nationals in Bangladesh.

The second highest users were from the UK, 13.27%, followed by India 9.16%, Australia 4.51%, Canada 4.32%, Singapore 3.92%, Japan 3.80%, UAE 3.05%, China 2.45%, South Korea 2.44%, Saudi Arabia 2.23%, Italy 1.93%, Germany 1.86% and various other countries 21.69%.