China now has more than 414 million credit cards in use, a rise of 5.83 percent from the end of 2013, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) announced.

As of the first quarter of 2014, the PBOC said Chinese banks have issued 414 million credit cards, with the top three credit card issuers - the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank and China Merchants Bank - accounting for more than 190 million credits in total.

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The country's rapidly growing e-commerce industry has propelled the rise of credit card use, experts said.

The PBOC, however, revealed that bad loans in banks have also increased in the January - March period of 2014.

The PBOC said the amount of credit card debt that has not been paid for at least six months in China increased to 28 billion yuan, or around US $4.50 billion, in the first quarter.

The amount is is 11.92 percent higher from the 25.19 billion yuan (US $4 billion) registered at the end of last year.

"With the number of credit cards growing each quarter, more and more Chinese people tend to spend more than what they are earning, resulting to a sudden rise in bad loans at issuing banks," the PBOC said.

Last year, Chinese banks were urged by experts to relax rules for credit cards to allow credit card holders to easily pay their bills and avoid interest charges.

Banks that issue credit cards were also told to observe the three days of grace period for card holders, which means consumers will not be charged interest penalty if they pay their dues three days after their due date.

The two stipulations were among the issues agreed on by members of the China Banking Association.

Web portal Netease, which released the 2014 Credit Report based on the annual reports of 14 national banks, said majority of the 30,365 Chinese consumers surveyed online have only one credit card while 47 percent own one card that is used most frequently.

TagsChina Credit Cards, Credit Cards in China, China Credit Card Debt, China Credit Card Issue