Source: CCTV.com

12-25-2008 10:11

Chinese banks have issued over 1.8 billion bank cards. The huge number has caught the attention of foreign banks looking to reach more customers through the power of plastic.

Chinese banks have issued over 1.8 billion bank cards.

Bank of East Asia issued its first yuan denominated credit card on the Chinese mainland on Tuesday. It's the fist overseas lender to independently issue yuan-denominated credit cards in China. Application procedures are almost completely the same as with domestic lenders. But the bank's annual fees and other commission charges are nearly 20 to 30-percent higher than domestic banks. To attract more clients, the Bank of East Asia has decided to forgo the annual fee for the first year.

Lin Zhimin, Department Vice President of Bank of Esat Asia, China said "As long as you have the right target clients, the credit card business will create good profits and a sound market share. "

Standard Charter bank is also preparing to launch a yuan denominated credit card business. HSBC and CitiBank have already taken a short cut, by teaming up with local commercial banks to offer co-branded credit cards.

Competition in the debit card market is also tough. Many foreign banks have already launch renminbi debit cards to tap into the huge market.

Customer service of Standard Charter said "Our RMB banking transfer service is very cheap. No matter how much you want to transfer, the fee will only be 1 yuan per transaction."

The Bank of East Asia is also offering free on-line banking while Citibank is offering no transaction fees for withdrawing cash from a different bank.

All signs that overseas banks see huge profit potential in the Chinese credit and debit card markets.

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Editor:Xiong Qu