BEIJING - China's bank card transactions in the first quarter totaled 100.27 trillion yuan ($16.21 trillion), up 19.34 percent from the same period last year, the country's central bank said on Friday.

A total of 10.63 billion transactions were made during the January-March period and the value for the first time exceeded 100 trillion yuan in one quarter, the People's Bank of China said.

Meanwhile, per capita bank card consumption reached 4,904.04 yuan in the three-month period, an increase of 60.29 percent, the PBOC said.

A total of 3.69 billion bank cards were issued by the end of the first quarter this year, including 343 million credit cards, an increase of 17.85 percent from a year ago, according to the bank.

However, compared with the level a year ago, the growth rate in bank card issuance has slowed down by 2.47 percentage points to 19.06 percent, the PBOC said.

Meanwhile, credit card loans that were more than six months overdue rose 16.19 percent quarter on quarter to 17.03 billion yuan, accounting for 1.26 percent of all credit loans outstanding at the end of March.

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