According to China UnionPay, the quantity of chip bank cards (i.e. financial IC cards) released in China in 2014 was doubled compared with the previous year; the total quantity is expected to exceed 1.2 billion.
According to China UnionPay’s statistics report released in 2014, with the increasing perfection of usage environment and expansion of application fields, chip bank card is more increasingly preferred by cardholders.
In 2014, the total transactions of chip bank cards reached RMB6.2 trillion yuan, 4.8 times as much as the previous year. There are about 4 million POS terminals that can accept UnionPay “flash pay” via chip card throughout China.
Compared with traditional magnetic-stripe bank card, chip card is advantageous in sound security and wide application. The People’s Bank of China has clearly stated that, from 2015 onwards, chip cards should be adopted for RMB settlement accounts in the economically developed areas and key industries.
According to UnionPay’s statistics report, inter-bank transaction in China in 2014 amounted to 41.1 trillion yuan, showing a year-on-year growth of 27.3%. According to the domestic transaction data, the trading volume in supermarkets, gas stations and other daily necessities industries still rank top in the residents’ daily consumption in 2014. However, of all nondaily class transactions, real estate transaction showed year-on-year decline for four consecutive quarters over the same period, due to the overall macroeconomic impact, but it significantly rose in the fourth quarter of 2014, showing encouraging trend.
UnionPay’s oversea network has further expanded. UnionPay reports have shown that, by the end of 2014, it has extended to 150 countries and regions, more than 13 million oversea merchants used UnionPay cards, nearly 1.2 million ATMs had been installed in foreign countries, more than 35 million UnionPay cards had been released in more than 30 countries and regions.
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