Shanghai courts received nearly 180,000 new financial cases last year, a record number and a year-on-year increase of nearly 40 percent, according to an annual report.

The report, published by the Shanghai High People’s Court on Friday, said the five commonest case categories were unchanged: credit card disputes; financial loan contract disputes; financial lease contract disputes; insurance disputes; and securities and futures disputes.

According to the People’s Bank of China, there were 588 million domestic credit cards and credit-debit cards in circulation by the end of 2017, representing year-on-year growth of more than 26 percent.

The report said some people had used microfinance loans to apply for credit cards issued by commercial banks in order to make use of installment payment services.