OREANDA-NEWS. November 06, 2014. According to the statistics of the PBC, as of the end of Q3, 2014, the total issuance of financial IC cards has exceeded 1 billion in China.

In particular, more than 900 million IC cards were issued by commercial banks operating nationwide, while more than 100 million IC bards were issued by regional commercial banks. In the first three quarters of 2014, new financial IC card issuance posted 450 million, i.e., 130 million cards, 150 million cards, and 170 million cards respectively in the first, second and third quarter, and accounted for more than 80 percent of newly issued bankcards. The speed of IC card issuance has accelerated significantly, with IC cards dominating the issuance of bank cards.

The above data indicates that in recent years, led by the PBC, the banking industry has actively promoted the use of financial IC cards in public service terminals, enabled cross-bank deposit of electronic cash on IC cards, and released rules for terminals to stop the use of MICR technology when processing IC card transactions. These efforts have produced good results. This has laid a solid basis for the extensive use of financial IC cards in 2015, effectively upgraded the security of bankcards, and will play an important role in the development of inclusive finance in China.