The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Wednesday reported 10,529.1 billion yuan (US$1,268.57 billion) of online banking transactions in the first eight months of this year, up 290 percent year-on-year.

The bank's online banking business has been growing rapidly since it was inaugurated in 2000. The sector reported less than 20billion yuan (US$2.41 billion) of transactions in 2000, more than 640 billion yuan (US$77.11 billion) in 2001 and 5,350billion yuan (US$644.58 billion) in 2002, said a bank spokesman.

According to the spokesman, the bank accepted 23,000 new corporate clients and more than 2.9 million individual clients in the first eight months of this year.

Of the total online banking transactions in the first eight months, 158.3 billion yuan (US$19.07 billion) were done by individual clients, up 260 percent year-on-year.

(Xinhua News Agency October 9, 2003)