74% of Jordanian bank account holders have no credit cards, loans

AMMAN, July 16 (Chinese media) -- Seventy-four percent of Jordanian bank account holders have no credit facilities such as credit cards, personal, housing and auto loans, indicating Jordan's retail banking services has substantial room for growth, said a survey of the Amman-based Arab Advisors Group on Wednesday.

The survey shows that 45.6 percent of bank account holders have no credit facilities, while 44.8 percent claim they can do without assistance of credit.

Moreover, some 87.8 percent of Jordanian bank account holders deal with one bank only, with the remaining 12.2 percent who deal with more than one bank, citing better customer service as their primary reason.

"According to the survey results, the Jordanian banking sector holds great room for both growth and consolidation," said Faisal Hakki, a financial market research manager at Arab Advisors Group.

The survey, dubbed "Jordan Retail Banking Use and Perceptions Survey", came out after face-to-face interviews with 688 bank account holders at the age of no less than 18 across the country, said Arab Advisors Group.

Retail banking is a mass-market banking where individual customers use local branches of larger commercial banks. It offers services including savings and checking accounts, mortgages, personal loans, debit cards, credit cards, and so forth.