China will overtake the U.S. to become world's leading issuer of credit cards by 2020 with between 800 and 900 million credit cards in circulation, according to Mastercard International.

Mastercard's veteran vice president Shen Bin made the prediction in Shanghai recently. Shen said he expected numbers of credit cards issued in China to grow by 11 percent annually to 2025. Transaction volumes would grow even faster at 14 percent per year. The underlying driving force is China's rapid urbanization, Shen said.

Shen said he sees profits from China's credit card business multiplying by between 20 and 30 times by 2025.

MasterCard Greater China's President Ling Hai welcomed the People's Bank of China version 2.0 IC card standard that is being promoted by China Unionpay."A unified standard will benefit everyone from a business and technical point of view," he said.

The People's Bank of China has said previously that it plans to set a five-year timetable for introducing the IC card across all sectors.

China's business press carried the story above on Monday. China.org.cn has not checked the stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.