OREANDA-NEWS. November 22, 2013. ICBC has issued over 80 million chip cards to 80.49 million as at end of September, 2013, according to an announcement of the Bank today. Customers made over RMB 1.25 trillion in purchases with ICBC chip cards during the first nine months. In addition, ICBC has made great efforts in improving the acceptance environment for ICBC chip cards. Currently all existing ICBC POS can accept chip credit cards. ICBC is now the only commercial bank in China with full ability to issue and process chip cards.

Compared with traditional magnetic-stripe card, chip card has a chip that can save more information such as encryption key, digital certificate and fingerprint. The chip is similar to a microcomputer which can simultaneously process multiple functions. Cardholders may use one card for different purposes. Besides payment, chip cards can also be used in various ways such as discount/bonus points, identity authentication, building access management, traffic fee collection and medical information storage.

According to an ICBC executive, ICBC is the earliest commercial bank in China to launch chip cards. Today, chip cards are widely used in 12 public sectors including social security, transportation, provident fund, medical and health, education, public utility fee payment, eID (electronic identity card), tourist attractions, in addition to commercial applications such as Bank-Insurance, community management, staff management, and membership management. For instance, ICBC and China Taiping Insurance Group jointly launched the first nationwide co-branded chip card integrating financial and banking insurance functions. Cardholders may just login ICBC internet banking or mobile banking or visit a self-service terminal for insurance services. In this way, services from the bank and the insurance company are integrated rather than separated like before when banks sold insurance products at the counter, while insurance companies provided customer services. Another example is the Guangzhou-Shenzhen Railway financial IC card. Cardholders may easily take the train by swiping card instead of waiting in queues to buy tickets. ICBC also teams up with many hospitals in China to roll out "Bank Medical Card", offering integrated medical and financial services for cardholders to make medical appointments, pay fees, get medical treatment, top up card or refund, effectively addressing the long-existing difficulty for patients to enjoy medical care.

ICBC has launched different kinds of chip card products that support offline payments to meet the rising demand for speedy payments from the customers. ICBC chip cards can also be used at merchants (department stores, supermarkets, restaurants, cinemas, entertainment venues, highways) supporting contactless payment. For example, ICBC’s Cool Pass Card is a special-shaped chip card that supports small-amount instant payment. Cardholders just pay by using Cool Pass Card to touch the sensor, with no need to enter PIN or sign receipt. Cool Pass Card is now gaining traction as a small-amount payment method.