The Credit Finance Association said on the 30th that total card approvals in the fourth quarter of last year amounted to 325 trillion won and the number of approvals reached 7.58 billion, up 4.9% and 3.9%, respectively, from a year earlier.
As improved earnings at corporations and rising stock prices continued to lift consumer sentiment, overall card approvals also appeared to maintain an uptrend. In fact, the consumer sentiment index rose from an average of 96.7 in the fourth quarter of 2024 to 109.6 in Oct. 2025, 112.3 in Nov., and 109.8 in Dec. The increase in online transactions also continued. From Oct. to Nov. last year, online shopping transaction value was 470.24 billion won, up 6.2% from 442.89 billion won a year earlier. Of that, food service transaction value was 706 billion won, up 13.6%, while travel and transportation service transaction value was 590.2 billion won, up 8.7%.
For the full year last year, total card approvals amounted to 1.2661 quadrillion won, up 4.7% from the previous year. The annual growth rate of total card approvals was 3.4% in 2020, 10.3% in 2021, 12.3% in 2022, 5.9% in 2023, 4.1% in 2024, and 4.7% in 2025.
In the fourth quarter of last year, personal card approvals totaled 266.6 trillion won and the number of approvals reached 7.19 billion, up 5.3% and 4.2%, respectively, from a year earlier. The quarterly growth rate of personal card approval amounts was 2.6% in the fourth quarter of 2024, 2.2% in the first quarter of 2025, 3.3% in the second, 5.9% in the third, and 5.3% in the fourth. The growth rate for the number of approvals was 3.7%, 1.5%, 1.9%, 5.7%, and 4.2% over the same period. It is assessed that, thanks to recovering consumer sentiment and policy effects such as consumption coupons, growth outpaced the first half.
During the same period, corporate card approvals totaled 58.6 trillion won, up 3.3% from a year earlier. The number of approvals was 400 million, down 2.7%. The quarterly growth rate of corporate card approval amounts was 5.8% in the fourth quarter of 2024, 8.8% in the first quarter of 2025, 5.9% in the second, and 10.3% in the third, before slowing to 3.3% in the fourth. The growth rate for the number of approvals was 1.6%, -2.2%, -0.7%, and 2.9%, before recording -2.7% in the fourth quarter. Due in part to fewer business days, growth was lower than for personal cards.
By industries closely tied to consumption, wholesale and retail rose 3.7%, lodging and restaurants rose 2.0%, and health and social welfare services rose 7.8%.