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China's bank card business has entered a period of explosive
development with 800 million cards issued to date and this momentum is
expected to continue over at least the next five years, according to
experts from China Unionpay.
"Since 1985 when China started to issue bank
cards, the country has become the second-largest holder
, following the United States which has
about 850 million cards issued," said Lin Caiyi, deputy director of the
Strategy & Development Department of China UnionPay -- the sole
national payment network for Chinese banks.
The credit card sector has also enjoyed rapid development, with the
number issued jumping from 1.55 million at the end of 2002 to the current
level of over 10 million, according to figures made public by Lin at the
2005 China Credit Card Business Forum held in Shanghai over the weekend.
"However, these cards are used very infrequently and the transaction
volume generated from their use is very small, especially in terms of
personal consumption," she said.
In 2004, these cards were used 5 billion times in China, involving
total transactions of 26 trillion yuan (US$3,144 billion), 40 per cent of
this was generated by companies when paying employees and only 2.4 per
cent was generated by personal consumption.
In countries such as the United States, France and
Switzerland, credit cards have become a convenient tool for payment, while
in China, credit cards remain in their infancy
, Lin added.
China now has 517,000 point-of-sale machines and 67,000 automatic
teller machines, but these figures should be increased many times in order
to make matters easier for card holders, according to Jia Lijun,
vice-president and country manager of the China Office of American Express
International.
Card issuers' major concern remains providing quality and reliable
services to the existing card holders, rather than issuing more cards.
"The bank card business plays a significant role in Shanghai's
construction into an international financial centre and the government
will work harder on this," said Cai Weijie, director of the Shanghai
Municipal Golden Card Project Office under the Municipal Information
Commission.
Shanghai had issued 49.02 million bank cards by the end of November
2004, including 1.6 million credit cards. The city is also building a
three-square-kilometre Bank Card Industrial Park in its Pudong District,
targeting bank card-related organizations.
(China Daily) | 
Updated: 2005-01-18 10:22
