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China's banking sector had issued a total of 469 million bank cards by the end of September since the first was issued in 1985, official figures showed.

Experts with China UnionPay Company Limited, a Shanghai-based national payment network sponsored by many of China's major banks, said there had been 130,000 banking outlets on the Chinese mainland capable of handling bank cards by late June this year.

Bank cards can also be used at 270,000 points of sale (POS) in approximately 200,000 retail outlets, and 41,000 automatic teller machines (ATM) across the country.

According to data released by the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, payment through bank cards in China totaled 8.9 trillion yuan (about 1.08 trillion US dollars) during the first three quarters of this year, a year-on-year increase of 26 percent.

The figure involves 136.98 billion yuan (16.7 billion US dollars) in retail value, up 45 percent.

The overall amount of deposits in bank cards reached 648.3 billion yuan (79 billion US dollars), up 43 percent over 2001.

China UnionPay was set up in Shanghai on March 26 by China's major banks in a bid to establish a unified national payment system, which will enable bank card holders to use their cards at any terminal by the year 2005, no matter at which bank or in which city they keep their accounts.

With an all-Chinese shareholder structure and a registered capital of 198.8 million U.S. dollars, China UnionPay will link all banks' payment systems across the country, and place its name on all bank cards and ATMs or POSs.

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