Central Bank Promotes Unified Bank Card System

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, March 28, 2002

Central Bank Promotes Unified Bank Card System

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) announced Wednesday that effective measures will be adopted to ensure the linking of bank cards between different banks within the year. After nearly 10 years, China's unified payment system for bank cards had made considerable progress, but hard work still lay ahead for the building of the interbank linking system.

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China's central bank, the People's Bank of China (PBOC), announced Wednesday that effective measures will be adopted to ensure the linking of bank cards between different banks within the year.

Dai Xianglong, governor of the PBOC, said at a meeting of banks today that after nearly 10 years, China's unified payment system for bank cards had made considerable progress.

By the end of 2001, he said, China had issued 383 million bank cards, up 38 percent from the previous year, and card-based transaction volume was 8.43 trillion yuan, up 86 percent. To date all commercial banks have been linked to the national bank card center, forming a nationwide interbank system for bank cards.

He pointed out that hard work still lay ahead for the building of the interbank linking system. He called on all related banks to solve major problems that hampered progress of the system.

Bank Card in China

Fifty-five financial institutions in China have issued 330 million bank cards of various kind by June last year.

The number represents an 18.4 percent increase from the same period of last year, the central bank said.

Financial institutions that had opened bank card businesses include four state-owned commercial banks, ten shareholding commercial banks, one post office, 29 city commercial banks as well as 11 rural credit unions.

The outstanding amount of bank card deposits hit 374.2 billion yuan during the same period, up 28.6 percent from the end of last year.

Trade volume of bank cards totaled 4.85 trillion yuan or an increase of 224 percent from a year ago, PBOC sources said.

Currently, China has 129,000 banking outlets handling bank card businesses, and there are 49,000 automatic teller machines (ATMs) across the country.

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