Departmental stores were the primary destination for credit card transactions, accounting for 49.61% of transactions in February, according to a Bangladesh Bank report.

Apart from departmental stores, about 12.9% took place in retail outlets, 8.81% in utilities, 7.34% in cash withdrawal, 5.86% in clothing and 5.26% in drug and pharmacies.

About 27.46% of the transactions made outside the country took place in departmental stores.

Additionally, VISA cards were the most commonly used, representing 71.55% of transactions, followed by MasterCard at 17.73% and the remaining transactions took place through using other types of cards in February.

In terms of cross-border transactions, India accounted for 21.72%, Thailand 12.23%, the United States 12.2%, the United Arab Emirates 10.59%, Singapore 6.83%, the United Kingdom 5.93% and Saudi Arabia 4.71%.

In February, credit card transactions within Bangladesh by foreign nationals witnessed an increase.

Of the transactions by foreign nationals, about 26.65% of the transactions took place using credit cards issued by the US, followed by the UK 13.56%, India 9.86%, Japan 4.21%, Canada 4.15%, Singapore 3.46%, Australia 3.3% and the UAE 2.9%.

The central bank report said the use of credit cards by Bangladeshi nationals both domestically and internationally saw a decline in February compared with that in the previous month.

Credit card transactions within the country decreased by 4.49% in February compared with those of the previous month.

The amount was Tk2,558 crore in February compared with that of Tk2,678 crore in January and Tk2,674 crore in December 2023.

Credit card transactions by Bangladeshi nationals outside the country dropped to Tk499 crore in February, which was Tk532 crore in January and Tk579 crore in December 2023.

However, there was a 32% increase in transactions through credit cards issued by foreign entities but used within Bangladesh, rising to Tk240 crore in February from Tk181 crore in January.

Transaction was Tk181 crore in December 2023.