BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- China's bank card industry has maintained a sound development momentum with larger business scale and greater market influence, according to a blue book on the development of bank card industry in China released by China Banking Association (CBA) last Friday in Beijing.
China had issued 7.83 billion bank cards by the end of 2018. The number of credit card issued by the country increased from 186 million to 970 million in the past decade, with transactions value rising from 3.5 trillion yuan to 38.2 trillion yuan. During the same period, the number of debit card issued added up to 6.86 billion, and the value of transactions via debit cards reached 751.4 trillion yuan, according to the blue book.
The acceptance of Chinese bank cards also expanded rapidly. Over the past decade, the number of domestic merchants accepting bank cards rose from 1.57 million to 27.33 million with POS terminals hiking from 2.41 million to 34.15 million, and the number of overseas enterprises supporting payment by UnionPay cards grew from about 557,000 to 26.37 million, covering 171 countries and regions worldwide.
The constant improvement of market regulation, the vigorous development of financial technologies, and the further opening-up of the payment sector all provide opportunities for the growth of the Chinese bank card industry, said Jin Shuying, deputy director of the bank card committee of CBA. (Edited by Su Dan)
A single purchase
