Search China Travel News:

China's bank card industry will take a giant leap forward following the announcement made that a unified national payment system is to be introduced, the English-Language newspaper China Daily said recently.

The system, to be completely operational by 2005, will allow bank card users to use their cards at any terminal, no matter at which bank or in which city they keep their accounts, the paper said.

With an all-Chinese shareholder structure and a registered capital of 198.8 million U.S. dollars, China Unionpay Co. Ltd will link all banks' payment systems throughout the country, and tag its brand on all the bank cards and automatic teller machines (ATM)or points of sales (POS).

Since January 10, China Unionpay bank card users in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Shenzhen have been able to use any ATM or POS thanks to China Unionpay.

By the end of this year, China Unionpay will link up ATM and POS machines in 100 cities and build up a cross-region and cross-bank network in 40 major cities, according to the paper.

Since 1987, China has issued more than 383 million bank cards, with the transaction volume reached 1.02 trillion U.S. dollars last year.