A survey by AC Nielsen has found that there is huge market potential for personal financial services, including insurance, loans and investment.
A poll of 2,500 residents aged between 18 and 54 in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou solicited information about the use of credit cards, life insurance, private investment and loans.
Only 29 percent of those surveyed in telephone interviews said they had bought life insurance policies, and only a quarter of those polled said they had made personal investments.
According to the results of the survey, less than 10 percent had borrowed money from banks during the past year, while 80 percent said they have bank deposits.
Only 20 percent of those polled in the three cities use credit cards, it said.
Men, those in the 25 to 34 age group and high-income earners, are more likely to use credit cards.
Nearly 40 percent of those polled said they are willing and will use credit cards, particularly in the case of young people and high-income earners.
Nearly half of those polled said the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the country's biggest commercial bank, provided most of their services, and the banking cards issued by that bank are the most frequently used in the three cities.
Less than 30 percent of those polled were able to name an overseas-funded bank in their respective cities, and Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd and Citibank are the best-known overseas banks.
Consumers in Shanghai are better informed about investment than those in Guangzhou and Beijing, and consumers in Guangzhou are the most frequent users of credit cards among the three cities.
(Xinhua News Agency June 20, 2003)
