US nationals were the top spenders through credit cards among all foreigners in Bangladesh, accounting for more than a quarter, or Tk 61.5 crore, of the amount spent by foreign nationals using the payment method in March.
Citizens of United Kingdom (UK) came in second with Tk 28.5 crore spent through credit cards while natives of neighbouring India placed third with Tk 24.6 crore, according to a report by Bangladesh Bank released last week.
Nationals of Singapore, China, Canada, Japan, Australia, Germany, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Italy, and South Korea were among the other top spenders, shows the report, styled “An Overview of Credit Card Users Spending Pattern within and outside the Country for March 2023”.
Credit card transactions by foreign nationals within Bangladesh rose by 10.30 per cent month-on-month to Tk 236 crore in March.
After analysing these transactions, Bangladesh Bank observed that the volume increased by nearly 10 per cent to Tk 2,375 crore in March compared to Tk 2,163 crore the month prior.
Similarly, the transaction volume was Tk 426 crore outside the country the same month.
“It is noticeable that this transaction amount recorded a significant increase of 36 per cent compared to that of February, when it stood at Tk 312 crore,” the central bank report said.
The credit cardholders mostly used their cards in India, where about 24 per cent of the cross-border transactions took place.
The rest of the major cross border transaction took place in the USA, Thailand, the UAE, Singapore, the UK and Saudi Arabia.
Visa and Mastercard were mostly used in domestic credit card transactions with Visa accounting for 70 per cent followed by MasterCard with 17 per cent. Meanwhile, the share of AMEX was 12.50 per cent.
Visa and Mastercard were also mostly used in cross border transactions with 77 per cent and 13 per cent respectively.
Other payment companies — Diners, QcashProprietary, JCB and UnionPay — made up the remainder.
The cardholders mainly used credit cards in departmental stores, the report found.
In March, about 55 per cent of all credit card transactions took place in departmental stores while some 11.90 per cent were for fund transfers.
Roughly 8 per cent of the transactions were for utility payments and 7.57 per cent was for cash withdrawal.
Additionally, 7.16 per cent was for buying clothing, 4.86 per cent for medicine and 2.68 per cent for transportation.
