BEIJING, March 25 -- Non-cash payments handled by Chinese banks continued stable expansion in 2022, with electronic payments sustaining growth momentum, a central bank report said.

Non-cash payments via bank cards, electronic payment vehicles, commercial papers, credit transfers, and other settlements, hit 4,805.77 trillion yuan (about 702.86 trillion U.S. dollars) last year, up 8.84 percent year on year, according to the report from the People's Bank of China.

Electronic payments took a lion's share of the non-cash payments, with a total transaction value of 3,110.13 trillion yuan, the report showed.

The total number of transactions made with bank cards reached 451.95 billion in 2022, with the combined value up 0.98 percent year on year to 1,011.94 trillion yuan.

Non-bank payment networks processed 337.87 trillion yuan of transactions in 2022, down 4.95 percent year on year, the report said.