China UnionPay, banks, government promote bank card use

Aug. 5, 2009 (China Knowledge) - China UnionPay, the only national credit card organization in the country, is sparing no effort to expand the bank card network in second-tier cities and rural areas to promote card-based consumption, said the company in a statement published on its website.

In the first half of this year, new point-of-sale machines and merchants in second-tier cities accounted for 50% of the expansion in China, said the company, without giving specific figures.

Shanghai-based UnionPay stated that, in cooperation with banks, it is improving bank card infrastructure to boost the use of bank cards, especially in second-tier cities and rural areas where acceptance of bank cards for transactions is not as widespread as in major cities like Shanghai and Beijing.

The People's Bank of China, the central bank, plans to increase the use of non-cash payments in the rural areas by 20% by 2012.

As of the end of June, UnionPay's network included 1.35 million domestic merchants, 2.11 million POS terminals and 180,000 ATMs, according to an earlier report from China Knowledge.