In 2008, facing severe challenges including the rare snow and sleet disaster, the devastating Wenchuan Earthquake and the deterioration of international economic and financial circumstances, the payment system in China maintained safe and efficient performance, providing strong support for the relatively rapid economic growth.
The environment for the use of non-cash payment instruments was improved and the volume of transactions processed by these instruments increased by a small margin; the volume of transactions processed by the payment system grew at a slower pace; the number of RMB settlement bank accounts registered stable growth.
1.Non-cash payment instruments
In 2008, the volume of non-cash payment instruments-based transactions continued to grow, and the transaction value grew at a much slower pace. The volume of non-cash payment instruments-based transactions stood at 18326.9282 million, up 18.6 percent year on year, representing a deceleration of 1.1 percentage points; the transaction value stood at 633000.
346 billion yuan, up 6.8 percent over 2007, marking a deceleration of 19.5 percentage points. Specifically, transaction volume of bill payment registered 882.2744 million, involving 251353.477 billion yuan, accounting for 4.8 percent and 39.7 percent of the volume and value of non-cash payment instruments-based transactions respectively; the volume of bankcard-based transactions stood at 16670.
2303 million, involving 127157.376 billion yuan, accounting for 91.0 percent and 20.1 percent of the volume and value of non-cash payment instruments-based transactions respectively; the volume of settlement transactions such as remittance and authorized collection transactions registered 774.4235 million, involving 254489.
493 billion yuan, accounting for 4.2 percent and 40.2 percent of the volume and value of non-cash payment instruments-based transactions respectively.
As the international financial crisis took its toll on the domestic economy, in the latter half of 2008, the value of non-cash payment instruments-based transactions declined and registered a negative year-on-year growth. Specifically speaking, transactions processed through non-cash payment instruments stood at 9912.8953 million, up 18.9 percent year on year, and the value registered 317451.833 billion yuan, down 6.9 percent over 2007.
(1)Notes
The volume of notes-based transactions declined while the value rose by a small margin. Notes-based transactions in developed regions accounted for a large proportion of the total. In 2008, the volume of notes-based transactions stood at 882.2744 million, down 9.8 percent year on year, and the value registered 251353.
477 billion yuan, up 6.3 percent year on year. The volume of notes-based transactions per day stood at 2.4106 million, involving 686.758 billion yuan. The volume of notes-based transactions in Jiangsu, Guangdong, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Beijing and Shandong accounted for 46.7 percent of the nation s total, down 2.
6 percentage points over 2007, and the value accounted for 66.0 percent of the nation s total, up 0.9 percentage points over 2007.
State-owned commercial banks accounted for a smaller share in the volume of notes-based transactions, but a bigger share in value. The share of joint-stock commercial banks in notes payment increased. In 2008, the volume of notes-based transactions of state-owned commercial banks stood at 539.3232 million, accounting for 61.
2 percent of the total volume of notes-based transactions, down 5.3 percentage points year on year; and the value registered 185045.306 billion yuan, accounting for 73.6 percent of the total value of notes-based transactions, up 0.7 percentage points year on year; the volume of notes-based transactions of joint-stock commercial banks stood at 84.
9128 million, accounting for 9.6 percent of the total volume of notes-based transactions, up 1.3 percentage points year on year; and the value registered 30554.837 billion yuan, accounting for 12.2 percent of the total value of notes-based transactions, up 0.7 percentage points year on year.
The performance of check-based transactions remained stable, with a smaller volume but a larger value. In 2008, the volume of check-based transactions stood at 860.292 million, down 9.8 percent over 2007 and the value registered 233841.01 billion yuan, up 6.9 percent over 2007. The volume of check-based transactions per day stood at 2.
3505 million, involving 638.91 billion yuan. The volume of check-based transactions in Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Zhejiang and Shandong stood at 395.2756 million, accounting for 45.9 percent of the total, 2.6 percentage points lower over 2007; the transaction value stood at 152383.173 billion yuan, accounting for 65.
1 percent of the nation s total, 1.1 percentage points more over 2007. Greater efforts were made to improve the credit environment for the use of checks. In 2008, 310,200 cases concerning signing bad checks and signing checks with signatures or stamps inconsistent with the preauthorized ones were detected and penalized, involving 27.
207 billion yuan, accounting for 0.04 percent and 0.01 percent respectively of the total volume and value of check payment.
Commercial drafts developed rapidly with growing volume. In 2008, the number of actually-settled commercial draft transactions stood at 7.7531 million, up 16.2 percent year on year, marking an acceleration of 2.8 percentage points and the value involved registered 6873.234 billion yuan, up 13.5 percent over 2007, representing an acceleration of 3.
5 percentage points. Specifically, the volume and value of banker s acceptance bill totaled 7.5504 million and 6333.885 billion yuan, up by 16.4 percent and 12.8 percent year on year respectively. The volume and value of commercial acceptance bill totaled 202,700 and 539.349 billion yuan, up by 9.5 percent and 21.
3 percent respectively. The transactions of commercial acceptance bill were not evenly distributed geographically, with the central and western China lagging much behind the coastal and eastern regions, and the comprehensive economic zones in coastal areas still had a high concentration of such transactions.
The volume and value of commercial acceptance bills in the three comprehensive economic development zones in the northern, eastern and southern part of China totaled 166,000 and 481.809 billion yuan, accounting for 81.9 percent and 89.3 percent of the nation s total. Joint-stock commercial banks dominated the commercial acceptance bill transactions, and the transactions were growing fair rapidly.
In 2008, the volume and value of transactions of commercial acceptance bills at joint-stock commercial banks registered 115,300 and 419.807 billion yuan, up 40.3 percent and 38.1 percent respectively over 2007, accounting for 56.9 percent and 77.8 percent respectively of the total transactions of commercial acceptance bill.
(2)Bankcard
The issuance of bankcards continued to increase, with credit cards accounting for a larger proportion in all bankcards issued and the issuance of bankcard slowed down. As of end-2008, 235 bankcard-issuing institutions joined the network of China UnionPay, 43 more over end-2007. Specifically, 195 were domestic and 40 were foreign.
As of end-2008, the total number of bankcards issued accumulatively was 1,800.3892 million, up 300.4386 million or 16.7 percent over the end of 2007, representing a deceleration of 15.9 percentage points over 2007. Specifically, 1,658.0602 million debit cards were issued, up 17.6 percent over 2007, marking a deceleration of 12.
8 percentage points, and the share of debit cards in all bankcards issued was 92.1 percent, down 1.9 percentage points over 2007; 142.329 million credit cards were issued, up 57.7 percent over 2007, a deceleration of 24.3 percentage points. By the end of 2008, the ratio between debit cards issued and credit cards issued was 11.
65:1.
The growth of credit cards issuance by state-owned commercial banks was faster than that by joint-stock commercial banks. As of end-2008, the volume of credit cards issued by state-owned commercial banks totaled 64.9311 million, up 77.9 percent over 2007 and accounting for 78.1 percent of credit cards and quasi-credit cards combined they issued; the joint-stock commercial banks accumulatively issued 53.
4668 million credit cards, 59.7 percent more over 2007, accounting for 96.8 percent of credit cards and quasi-credit cards combined they issued. China Postal Savings Bank started to issue credit cards and had accumulatively issued 17,200 credit cards.
The role of credit card unraveled, promoting the rapid development of household credit consumption. By the end of 2008, the outstanding credit registered 980.457 billion yuan, up 75.8 percent year on year and 3.2 times as much as that of 2006; the credit coming due at end-2008 amounted to 158.212 billion yuan, up 110.9 percent year on year and 4.8 times as much as that of 2006.
The acceptance environment of bankcards has been improved, but still lags behind that of the developed countries. By the end of 2008, the inter-bank bankcard payment system covered 1.1817 million merchants, 1.8451 million POS machines, 167,500 ATMs, up by 442,500, 663,900 and 39,900 over end-2007. At the end of 2008, the number of bankcards for each ATM was 10,700 and the number of bankcards for each POS machine was 976.
At the end of 2007, in the U.S., France and Germany, the number of bankcards for each ATM was 6,220, 1,906 and 1,741 respectively, and the number of bankcards for each POS machine was 502, 80 and 210 respectively.
The expansion of bankcard-based transactions facilitated the payment of the general public and thus promoted consumption. In 2008, the volume of bankcard-based transactions stood at 16670.2303 million, with the total value of 127157.376 billion yuan, up 22.5 percent and 14.1 percent respectively over 2007.
The volume of bankcard-based transactions per day stood at 45.5471 million, with the total value of 347.425 billion yuan. Among the total, 3374.3359 million transactions were cash deposits, increasing by 12.2 percent year on year, and the total value was 32198.525 billion yuan, decreasing by 9.1 percent over 2007; 8402.
6366 million transactions were cash withdrawals, with the total value of 33502.966 billion yuan, increasing by 20.6 percent and 11.1 percent respectively over 2007; 2645.3329 million transactions were related to consumption, with the total value of 3947.412 billion yuan, increasing by 51.9 percent and 31.
8 percent respectively over 2007; 2247.9249 million transactions were fund transfer, with the total value of 57508.473 billion yuan, increasing by 18.5 percent and 34.0 percent respectively year on year.
Bankcard-based consumption increased rapidly, with the bankcard penetration rate of 24.2 percent, up 2.3 percentage points over 2007. In 2008, the consumption value per bankcard and consumption value per transaction stood at 2,392 yuan and 1,492 yuan respectively, with the former increasing by 5.1 percent over 2007 and the latter decreasing by 13.
2 percent year on year. Cross-bank bankcard-based consumption transactions stood at 2205.911 million, with the total value of 3260.646 billion yuan, up 55.9 percent and 43.8 percent respectively over 2007, accounting for 83.4 percent and 82.6 percent of the total volume and value of bankcard-based consumption respectively.
The bankcard service tailored for migrant workers maintained rapid growth. By December 31, 2008, migrant workers bankcard business was launched in 45,000 outlets of rural cooperative financial institutions at county or below in 20 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) including Guizhou Province and Hunan Province, and 15,000 outlets of China Postal Savings Bank in 31 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions).
In 2008, migrant worker bankcards system processed 7.98 billion yuan, up by nearly 300 percent over 2007, playing an important role in improving bankcard usage environment and enhancing rural service in rural areas.
(3)Means of settlement
The volume of remittance and authorized collection decreased while the value involved increased by a small margin. In 2008, the volume of settlement transactions including remittance and authorized collection registered 774.4235 million, down by 10.0 percent over 2007, and the total value was 254489.
493 billion yuan, up by 3.9 percent over 2007. Among them, the volume of remittance registered 740.2697 million, with the total value of 246.798886 trillion yuan, up 7.6 percent and 4.6 percent respectively over 2007; the volume of collection with acceptance stood at 749,900, down 10.9 percent year on year and the total value was 579.
454 billion yuan, up 3.4 percent over 2007; the volume of authorized collection registered 33.4039 million, with the total value of 7111.153 billion yuan, down 80.6 percent and 15.8 percent respectively over 2007.
2.Payment System
In 2008, the payment system operated stably and efficiently. For the whole year, the transactions processed by the large-value real time payment system ??LVPS?? and the intra-bank payment systems of banking financial institutions continued to maintain a momentum of rapid growth, but affected by the international financial crisis, the volume of transactions processed by the two kinds of systems increased at a slower pace in the second half of 2008 and the transaction value decreased in Q4; The transactions processed by the inter-bank bankcard payment system grew at a slower pace; transaction volume processed by the small-value bulk electronic payment system (BEPS) grew steadily quarter by quarter; the business volume processed by the local bill clearing system reduced by a small margin.
In 2008, the payment system processed a total of 7262.7132 million transactions with the value of 1130.393151 trillion yuan, registering a year-on-year increase of 34.8 percent and 27.1 percent respectively, 6.3 percentage points and 33.8 percentage points lower respectively over in 2007.
(1)LVPS
The volume of transactions processed by the LVPS continued to increase while the growth of value slowed down by a large margin. In 2008, the LVPS processed a total number of 214.0652 million transactions, up 24.5 percent over 2007, representing an acceleration of 3.3 percentage points, and the total value of the transactions processed by the LVPS stood at 640.
231077 trillion yuan, up 27.0 percent over 2007, marking a deceleration of 68.8 percentage points. For the whole year, the volume of transactions processed by the LVPS per day stood at 813,900 with the value of 2.434339 trillion yuan, up by 18.4 percent and 20.7 percent respectively over 2007. In Q4, the value of transactions processed by the LVPS registered negative growth.
In Q4 2008, the number of transactions processed by the LVPS stood at 59.4639 million, up 19.1 percent over Q4 2007, marking a deceleration of 10.9 percentage points and the value of transactions processed by the LVPS registered 158.832723 trillion yuan, down 11.6 percent over Q4 2007, representing a deceleration 125.
6 percentage points over Q4 2007.
In 2008, China Securities Depository and Clearing Corporation Limited delivered 40,100 transactions of fund clearing through the LVPS, involving 5857.292 billion yuan, with the daily DVP (Delivery versus Payment) settlement value of 22.271 billion yuan; the number of foreign exchange transactions processed stood at 3,200, involving 4114.768 billion yuan; the number of inter-bank funding transactions registered 13,300, involving 3330.901 billion yuan.
(2)Intra-bank payment systems
The payment processed by intra-bank payment systems maintained rapid growth.Though transaction volume decelerated, transaction value grew faster. In 2008, intra-bank payment systems of banking financial institutions processed a total number of 2,882.2993 million transactions, up 29.3 percent over 2007, a deceleration of 16.
7 percentage points, and the total value involved registered 408.554143 trillion yuan, up 38.8 percent over 2007, an acceleration of 8.3 percentage points over 2007. The volume of transactions processed per day registered 7,875,100, involving 1116.268 billion yuan. In Q4, the value of transactions processed by intra-bank payment systems decreased by a large margin.
In Q4 2008, intra-bank payment systems processed a total number of 769.3881 million transactions, up 17.2 percent over Q4 2007, involving 67748.458 billion yuan, down 31.7 percent over Q4 2007.
(3)Inter-bank bankcard payment system
The growth of transactions processed by the inter-bank bankcard payment system was relatively rapid but slower than the previous year. In 2008, the inter-bank bankcard payment system processed a total of 3597.4351 million transactions, up 45.5 percent over 2007, a deceleration of 3.4 percentage points and the transaction value stood at 4550.946 billion yuan, up 46.1 percent over 2007, a deceleration of 29 percentage points. The transactions processed per day stood at 9,829,100, involving 12.434 billion yuan.
(4)BEPS
The volume of transactions processed by the BEPS grew steadily quarter by quarter. In 2008, the BEPS processed a total of 140.7065 million transactions, involving 5118.18 billion yuan. The volume of transactions processed per day registered 400,900, involving 14.582 billion yuan. In 2008, the average quarter-on-quarter growth of the volume and value of transactions processed by the BEPS both stood at 17.3 percent, while the quarter-on-quarter growth of transaction volume and transactions in Q4 registered 16.5 percent and 41.6 percent respectively.
(5)Local bill clearing system
The business processed by the local bill clearing system fell slightly. In 2008, the volume of transactions processed by the local bill clearing system registered 428.2071 million, down 2.2 percent year on year, representing a deceleration of 1.4 percentage points over 2007, and the value of the transactions processed stood at 71938.805 billion yuan, down 0.6 percent year on year, marking a deceleration of 10.9 percentage points.
3.Settlement bank accounts
In 2008, the number of RMB bank settlement accounts maintained stable growth. As of end-2008, the number of settlement accounts at all banks nationwide totaled 2389.6018 million, 203.9813 million more over 2007, representing a year-on-year growth of 9.3 percent, marking a deceleration of 0.5 percentage points compared with the previous year.
In particular, the number of corporate settlement bank accounts registered 19.6569 million, accounting for 0.8 percent of the total and marking an year-on-year increase of 1,988,800 or 11.3 percent; the number of individual settlement bank accounts registered 2369.9449 million, accounting for 99.2 percent of the total and marking an year-on-year increase of 201.
9923 million or 9.3 percent.
(1)Corporate settlement bank accounts
The growth of corporate settlement bank accounts slowed down. In 2008, the corporate settlement bank accounts continued to increase, with a deceleration of 4.0 percentage points. Among all corporate settlement bank accounts, the number of basic deposit accounts registered 11,419,100, up 12.0 percent year on year, representing a deceleration of 2.
8 percentage points; the number of ordinary deposit accounts stood at 5,872,300, up 12.0 percent, marking a deceleration of 6.1 percentage points; the number of dedicated deposit accounts was 2,145,900, up 6.2 percent year on year, representing a deceleration of 4.2 percentage points and the number of provisional deposit accounts registered 219,600, up 5.
6 percent over 2007, marking a deceleration of 10.0 percentage points.
In key areas enjoying economic support from the central government, the growth of corporate settlement bank accounts was higher than the national average. As of end-2008, the number of corporate settlement bank accounts nationwide stood at 19.6569 million, up 11.3 percent year on year. In particular, for west China, the number of accounts in Ningxia, Gansu, Guizhou, Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia increased by 19.
8 percent, 19.7 percent, 16.3 percent, 15.4 percent and 14.8 percent year on year respectively; for central China, the number of accounts in Jiangxi, Henan, Hunan, Anhui and Hubei posted year-on-year growth of 17.4 percent, 17 percent, 16.8 percent, 16.2 percent and 14.6 percent respectively, which were higher than China s average.
The central government reinforced policy support for western and central China, which enhanced the economic dynamics and promoted the rapid growth of corporate settlement bank accounts in these regions.
The year-on-year increase of corporate settlement bank accounts at banking financial institutions slowed down. As of end-2008, the corporate settlement bank accounts at state-owned commercial banks, other financial institutions, joint-stock commercial banks and policy banks stood at 10.4859 million, 6.4746 million, 2.5667 million and 129,700 respectively, up by 9.4 percent, 14.7 percent, 10.1 percent and 16.5 percent year on year respectively, representing deceleration of 3.3 percentage points, 4.6 percentage points, 6.3 percentage points and 4.7 percentage points respectively.
The corporate settlement bank accounts opened by entities whose registered capital ranged from 10 million yuan to 100 million yuan maintained rapid growth. The number of corporate settlement bank accounts opened by entities whose registered capital was less than 100 million yuan rose by 1,950,900, marking year-on-year increase of 11.
3 percent. Specifically, the number of corporate settlement bank accounts opened by entities whose registered capital ranged from 10 million yuan to 100 million yuan presented a more rapid year-on-year growth of 15.0 percent. In Jiangxi, Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia, the number of corporate settlement bank accounts opened by entities whose registered capital ranged from 10 million yuan to 100 million yuan rose especially rapidly, up 25.
4 percent, 23.7 percent and 22 percent year on year respectively. In 2008, the distribution structure of corporate settlement bank accounts opened by entities whose registered capital ranged from 10 million yuan to 100 million yuan remained basically the same.
The number of corporate settlement bank accounts opened by various industries remained an upward trend, but the growth for many industries showed significant slowdown. Broken down by industries, the year-on-year growth of farming, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery industry, household service and other service industry, leasing and business service industry, extractive industry, and wholesale and retail industry were the top five, registering 31.
4 percent, 23.8 percent, 21.5 percent, 16.1 percent and 15.6 percent respectively, among which only the year-on-year growth of the farming, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery industry saw a year-on-year acceleration of 2.1 percentage points.
(2)Individual settlement bank accounts
The number of individual settlement bank accounts continued to rise, but was at a slower pace. As of end-2008, the number of individual settlement bank accounts was 2369.9449 million, up 201.9923 million or 9.3 percent over 2007, representing a deceleration of 0.4 percentage points. Among them, the number of individual settlement bank accounts in Guangdong (including Shenzhen), Jiangxu, Zhejiang and Shandong registered 354.
3461 million, 180.2084 million, 172.6927 million and 149.3781 million respectively, totaling 856.6253 million, accounting for 36.1 percent of the nation s total; the year-on-year growth of individual settlement bank accounts in Guizhou, Jiangsu and Anhui posted 31.7 percent, 22.8 percent and 22.5 percent respectively, higher than China s average of 9.
3 percent; the growth in Jiangxi and Ningxia were merely 0.2 percent and 1.6 percent, much lower than the average nationwide.
Per capita individual settlement bank accounts in developed regions such as Beijing and Shanghai were among the top, with Beijing as the city with the largest increase of newly opened accounts per 10,000 people. As of end-2008, per capita individual settlement bank accounts in Beijing, Shanghai, Fujian, Tianjin and Zhejiang were 7.
33, 5.89, 3.43, 3.43 and 3.41 respectively, much higher than the nation s average of 1.75. In 2008, the number of newly opened individual settlement bank accounts per 10,000 people stood at 1,409.90, with Beijing, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Chongqing as the top five provinces (municipalities), registering 58.
9089 million, 43.8349 million, 39.668 million, 38.9723 million and 30.3822 million respectively.
