Dai Xianglong said Thursday that inter bank billing of bankcards was available in 100cities, and the promotion of the common identifier of "Yinlian" on cards had been going smoothly in 40 cities.
He said that by the end of June, China had issued a total of 438 million bankcards, up 14 percent from the end of 2001. In the first six months the aggregate trading volume of bankcards was 6.1 trillion yuan (US$737.6 billion), up 25 percent from the corresponding period last year, while deposits in bankcard accounts totaled 573.1 billion yuan (US$69.3 billion), up 26.8 percent from the end of last year.
He said that in the second half-year further efforts would be made to promote the linking of different bankcards and finish all related work on schedule.
(Xinhua News Agency August 2, 2002)
