Bank card refers to a credit payment tool issued by commercial banks (including postal financial institutions) with all or part of the functions of consumer credit, transfer settlement, cash deposit and withdrawal, etc. Bank card reduces the circulation of cash and checks, which makes the banking business break through the limitation of time and space and undergo fundamental changes. The application of bank card automatic settlement system makes the dream of "no cheque, no cash society" come true.
The 20-year development of China's bank card industry can be roughly divided into four stages:
1985 to the early 1990s, is the initial stage.
From the early 1990s to the beginning of 1996, the bank card business was independently developed for branches in large and medium-sized cities. At this stage, the Gold Card Project started.
From 1997 to 200 1 at the end of the year, China bank cards gradually realized the general stage of networking.
Since 200 1, it has been a stage of in-depth development of bank card networking in China, and the number of bank cards issued by various banking institutions in China has increased rapidly.
Yang Zaiping, full-time vice president of China Banking Association, said that by the end of the first quarter of 20 10, the number of cards issued nationwide had reached 21690,000, up by 14.9% year-on-year. The utilization rate of bank cards has gradually increased, and card consumption accounts for 30% of social consumption.
By the end of 20 1 1, the cumulative number of bank cards issued exceeded 2.85 billion, up by 18% year-on-year. Credit card consumption exceeded 16 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of more than 50%, accounting for more than 40% of the total retail sales of consumer goods, an increase of about 6 percentage points over 20 10. 20 1 1 year, there are more than 35,000 convenience payment outlets, 47,000 directly connected merchants and 2 10000 POS machines in secondary cities, reaching 15 16000 respectively.
In the whole year, 2.2 trillion yuan and 860 million interbank transactions were realized, accounting for 47.4% and 52% of the national interbank transactions respectively, and the contribution of transaction amount increased by 2.4 percentage points compared with the beginning of the year.
China UnionPay and commercial banks jointly launched the Rich Farmers Card, which has been issued in 28 institutions in 28 provinces across the country, with an annual card issuance of more than 5 million, becoming a new platform for serving agriculture, rural areas and farmers.