BEIJING -- China issued 3.23 billion bank cards as of the end of the second quarter, an increase of 20.6 percent from a year earlier, the central bank said Monday.

The growth rate was 2.6 percentage points higher than that registered during the same period last year, the People's Bank of China said in a statement on its website.

On a quarterly basis, the number of bank cards expanded by 3.9 percent, the statement said.

Some 302 million credit cards were issued by the end of June, up by 17.4 percent from a year earlier and by 4 percent from the end of March, the statement said.

Credit card loans that were more than six months overdue rose 10.2 percent quarterly to hit 13.27 billion yuan ($2.11 billion) by the end of the second quarter, accounting for 1.5 percent of total credit loans outstanding, the statement said.

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