BEIJING -- China had issued a total of 8.98 billion bank cards by the end of 2020, according to a blue paper.

Transactions worth 792.8 trillion yuan ($123.24 trillion) were made through bank cards last year, down 3.6 percent year-on-year, said the blue paper released by the China Banking Association.

In 2020, a total of 450 million bank cards were newly issued in China, up 5.3 percent from the previous year, the paper said.

By the end of last year, the outstanding balance of bank card credit totaled 7.91 trillion yuan, an increase of 4.2 percent over the previous year, the paper showed.