Local courts handled almost more than 170,000 financial and commercial cases last year with the amount of money involved exceeding 100 billion yuan (US$14.5 billion) for the first time, according to a white paper released by the Shanghai High People's Court on Monday.

Disputes related to credit cards ranked top with new types of commercial cases emerging, such as new transaction methods provided by third party payment service companies.

The white paper showed that last year Shanghai courts accepted 170,955 first-instance financial and commercial cases, a drop of 4.7 percent, and handled 168,520 of them. The amount of money involved was double that of 2017.

The top five types of disputes involved credit cards, loan contracts, lease contracts, insurance, securities and futures.

New types of financial and commercial dispute included a case at the Pudong New Area People's Court where a credit card holder sued his bank after it lowered his credit limit.

The amount of money in credit card disputes saw a major surge last year, the white paper said. While the number of credit card disputes dropped by 11.5 percent, the amount of money involved increased by 56.3 percent. The white paper said credit cards had become an important part of individual financing but, because of a low threshold in securing a card, defaults were common.

The white paper noted an increase in cases related to equity trading. In 2018, the number of disputes triggered by pledge-style bond repurchase was seven times more than in 2016 and 2017 combined.

The number of P2P disputes in 2018 dropped compared with the year before, the white paper said, because the authorities had cracked down hard on illegal platforms.

The high court expects lawsuits involving foreign financial institutions or their branches in China may increase with the increasing opening up of city's financial industry.

Meanwhile, disputes triggered by cross-border financial transactions and services are also likely to increase, it said, along with the emergence of those related to market access.

There will also be more cases in connection to judicial justifications concerning foreign affairs, it said.