Photo:CGTN

The amount of non-cash payments by banks in China went down 5.2 percent year on year in the first quarter (Q1) of the year, a central bank report showed.

The amount of money involved in non-cash payments, including commercial papers, bank cards and online payment vehicles, stood at 883.24 trillion yuan (about 124.6 trillion U.S. dollars) in the period, according to the People's Bank of China (PBOC).

A total of 8.53 billion bank cards were in use at the end of March, up 1.3 percent from a quarter ago, while each Chinese owned 6.09 bank cards on average, the PBOC data showed.

Mobile payment sustained growth in the first three months, as banks and financial institutions transacted 90.81 trillion yuan of mobile payments, up 4.84 percent year on year.

Non-bank payment vehicles transacted 60.9 trillion yuan in Q1, increasing by 4.99 percent from the same period last year.