Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) said it expects to reach the 5 million mark for issued prepaid, debit and credits cards before the end of the year on the back of the rising popularity of online shopping.

“The Philippine market has been surprisingly much better than the rest of the world in terms of resiliency. We have seen of course some holding back in spending in 2009, which we think is natural. But people are being comfortable again and started to spend,” Ma. Cristina Go, BPI senior vice president, said during the launch of the bank’s four new products designed to enhance the online shopping experience of its cardholders.

Go, who also heads the BPI Cards Issuing Business, said the number of BPI-issued credits cards is expected to reach close to a million by this month, up from just 920,000 a year ago.

The bank also expects to increase its ATM or debit cards to 3.5 million, and its prepaid cards to 500,000 by the end of the year.

“We will be aggressive in all four card segments. We want to give the Filipinos a choice, whether credit, ATM, prepaid, or debit cards,” Go said.

BPI has introduced two new cards—BPI eCredit card and My ePrepaid cards—that are designed to encourage more depositors and clients to use their cards for online shopping. These products are supported by two online shopping sites —BPICards.com and Dealmania.ph.

The bank has partnered with group buying site Buyanihan.com to power DealMania.ph, which provides exclusive discounts and shopping deals to BPI cardholders.

BPI eCredit card is the first virtual credit card exclusively designed for online shopping. It uses a different card number with its own sub-limit that cardholders can set and adjust as they need it. My ePrepaid card, which is the prepaid card equivalent of eCredit card, can load up to P10,000 at any given time.