On January 15, Mr. SU Ning, Deputy Governor of the People s Bank of China (PBC), and Mr. SHEN Lianbin, Executive Vice Governor of Shanxi Province, addressed the kick-off ceremony of bankcard service tailored for migrant workers in Shanxi Province. SU emphasized that, the PBC and relevant financial institutions should follow the scientific approach to development in providing solid improvement of financial service for farmers, in order to promote balanced development of urban and rural areas.
SU pointed out that, improving financial service in rural areas has always been a priority in China s financial reform. Bankcard service tailored for migrant workers is effective in diversifying the channels of remittance as well as deposit and withdrawal outside the prefecture-level cities where the bankcard holders open their accounts, and it is conducive to popularizing bankcards in rural and less-developed areas, consolidating the progress made in network interoperability and promoting the intermediary business of commercial banks and rural cooperatives.
Launching this tailored service marks a breakthrough in improving rural payment environment.
SU emphasized that, the PBC branches should continue to organize and coordinate the tailored service. China UnionPay, rural cooperatives and Postal Savings Banks should assume their due responsibilities. Financial institutions issuing bankcards should actively coordinate with each other, and focus on improving management, increasing business volume and enhancing the ratio of successful bankcard issuance.
Relevant institutions should improve the bankcard acceptance market, promote innovation and diversified development; rural cooperatives and postal savings banks should share their resources, compete in an orderly manner and make efforts to develop licensed merchants and expand bankcard acceptance market in rural areas; minimize fund transfer risks which may cost the migrant workers and maintain a safe and convenient channel of payment; beef up education and information dissemination concerning relevant policies and business operation among migrant workers, especially in the rural towns and counties which are hometowns to featuring high concentration of migrant workers and among the migrant workers returning to rural areas.
SHEN pointed out that, launching bankcard service tailored for migrant workers in Shanxi Province is beneficial for protecting the rights and interests of migrant workers and marks a concrete measure of beefing up financial support in building a new socialist countryside. He urged relevant financial institutions in Shanxi Province to make sound progress in providing a facilitating environment for using the tailored bankcards.
It is reported that, by the end of 2008, the PBC had launched bankcard service tailored for migrant workers in 20 provinces (municipalities) nationwide, basically covering major labor-exporting and -importing provinces. 161 financial institutions have started to issue bankcards tailored for migrant workers, with accumulative transaction volume of 7.082 billion yuan, average withdrawal volume per transaction of 1143.37 yuan and average ratio of successful transactions of 97.67%.
