The People's Bank of China: Overall operation of the payment system in the fourth quarter of 2018

Payment business statistics in the fourth quarter of 2018 show that the national payment system is operating smoothly, the scale of social capital transactions continues to expand, and the payment business volume is steadily increasing.

1. Non-cash payment tools

In the fourth quarter, banking and financial institutions nationwide handled a total of 63.384 billion non-cash payment transactions with a total amount of 96.089 trillion yuan, up 34.53% and 0.33% year-on-year respectively.

(I) Bills

The volume of commercial bills increased slightly. In the fourth quarter, there were 57.9334 million bills transactions nationwide, with a total amount of 38.19 trillion yuan, down 13.51% and 14.82% year-on-year, respectively. Among them, 52.9544 million check transactions, with a total amount of 33.92 trillion yuan, down 15.19% and 16.37% year-on-year, respectively; 4.7080 million actual settlement commercial bills, with a total amount of 4.02 trillion yuan, up 14.31% and 3.75% year-on-year, respectively; 66,500 bank bills, with a total amount of 50.705 billion yuan, down 16.27% and 41.46% year-on-year, respectively; 204,400 bank promissory notes, with a total amount of 192.282 billion yuan, down 40.84% ​​and 37.23% year-on-year, respectively.

The business volume of the electronic commercial bill system grew rapidly. In the fourth quarter, the electronic commercial bill system issued 4.4583 million bills with a total amount of 4.88 trillion yuan, up 85.81% and 33.93% year-on-year respectively; accepted 4.5561 million bills with a total amount of 5.00 trillion yuan, up 84.80% and 33.54% year-on-year respectively; discounted 1.4053 million bills with a total amount of 2.93 trillion yuan, up 121.67% and 57.61% year-on-year respectively; rediscounted 1.7282 million bills with a total amount of 8.34 trillion yuan, with the number of bills increasing by 13.64% year-on-year and the total amount decreasing by 21.70% year-on-year; pledged repurchase 147,200 bills with a total amount of 1.64 trillion yuan, up 24.27% and 0.05% year-on-year respectively.

(II) Bank Card

The number of bank cards issued continued to grow. As of the end of the fourth quarter, the number of bank cards in use nationwide was 7.597 billion, a month-on-month increase of 2.86%. Among them, the number of debit cards in use was 6.911 billion, a month-on-month increase of 2.75%; the number of credit cards and combined credit and debit cards in use totaled 686 million, a month-on-month increase of 4.01%. The average number of bank cards held per person nationwide was 5.46, of which the average number of credit cards and combined credit and debit cards held was 0.49.

The number of bank card acceptance terminals remained basically stable. As of the end of the fourth quarter, there were 27.33 million networked merchants in the interbank payment system for bank cards, 34.1482 million networked POS machines, an increase of 827,200 and 1.8357 million respectively from the end of the previous quarter, and 1.1108 million ATM machines, a decrease of 17,700 from the end of the previous quarter. The number of POS machines per 10,000 people nationwide was 245.66, a month-on-month increase of 5.68%; the number of ATMs per 10,000 people nationwide was 7.99, a month-on-month decrease of 1.57%.

The volume of bank card transactions has been rising steadily. In the fourth quarter, there were 61.019 billion bank card transactions nationwide, with a total amount of 21.047 trillion yuan, up 38.49% and 7.11% year-on-year respectively. Among them, there were 1.86 billion cash deposits, with a total amount of 13.85 trillion yuan; 3.289 billion cash withdrawals, with a total amount of 13.73 trillion yuan; 26.999 billion transfers, with a total amount of 15.744 trillion yuan; and 28.870 billion consumer transactions, with a total amount of 25.45 trillion yuan. The bank card penetration rate was 48.98%, down 0.01 percentage point from the previous month; the per capita bank card consumption amount was 18,300 yuan, up 29.76% year-on-year; the average bank card consumption amount was 3,350.51 yuan, up 14.93% year-on-year; the average bank card consumption amount was 881.64 yuan, down 20.45% year-on-year.

The scale of bank card credit has grown moderately, and the proportion of total credit that is overdue for half a year has decreased. As of the end of the fourth quarter, the total credit of bank cards was 15.40 trillion yuan, a month-on-month increase of 4.83%; the outstanding balance of bank card credit was 6.85 trillion yuan, a month-on-month increase of 3.61%. The average credit limit of bank cards is 22,400 yuan, and the credit utilization rate is 44.51%. The total amount of credit card credit that is overdue for half a year is 78.861 billion yuan, accounting for 1.16% of the outstanding balance of credit card credit, a decrease of 0.18 percentage points from the end of the previous quarter.

(III) Other settlement services such as credit transfer

The volume of other settlement businesses such as credit transfers has declined. In the fourth quarter, there were 2.307 billion credit transfers, direct debits, collection and acceptance, and domestic letter of credit settlement businesses nationwide, with a total amount of 712.23 trillion yuan, down 22.77% and 0.58% year-on-year respectively. Among them, there were 2.179 billion credit transfers, with a total amount of 702.31 trillion yuan.

4. Electronic Payment

The volume of mobile payment business grew rapidly. In the fourth quarter, banking financial institutions processed a total of 46.595 billion electronic payment transactions with a total amount of 61.595 trillion yuan. Among them, online payment transactions amounted to 16.148 billion transactions with a total amount of 50.791 trillion yuan, up 20.36% and 0.97% year-on-year respectively; mobile payment transactions amounted to 17.708 billion transactions with a total amount of 78.22 trillion yuan, up 78.79% and 45.47% year-on-year respectively; and telephone payment transactions amounted to 35.6484 million transactions with a total amount of 1.75 trillion yuan, down 9.18% and 15.47% year-on-year respectively.

In the fourth quarter, non-bank payment institutions processed 157.862 billion online payment transactions with a total amount of 56.63 trillion yuan, up 60.21% and 22.26% year-on-year respectively.

2. Payment System

In the fourth quarter, the payment system processed a total of 104.455 billion payment transactions with a total amount of 163.38 trillion yuan.

1. People's Bank of China Payment System

In the fourth quarter, the People's Bank of China's payment system processed 4.279 billion payment transactions with a total amount of 122.364 trillion yuan, up 18.75% and 14.57% year-on-year, accounting for 4.10% and 74.91% of the number and amount of payment system transactions, respectively. The average daily processing volume was 48.4274 million transactions with a total amount of 19.25 trillion yuan.

The business volume of the large-value real-time payment system has grown steadily. In the fourth quarter, the large-value real-time payment system processed 284 million transactions with a total amount of 116.162 trillion yuan, up 9.79% and 15.31% year-on-year respectively. The average daily processing volume was 4.5087 million transactions with a total amount of 18.44 trillion yuan.

The amount of business processed by the small-amount batch payment system continued to rise. In the fourth quarter, the small-amount batch payment system processed 601 million transactions with a total amount of 10.58 trillion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 2.20% in the number of transactions and an increase of 27.18% in the amount. The average daily processing volume was 6.5351 million transactions with a total amount of 115.035 billion yuan.

The growth rate of the online payment interbank clearing system business volume slowed down. In the fourth quarter, the online payment interbank clearing system processed 3.295 billion transactions with a total amount of 24.20 trillion yuan, up 24.88% and 27.50% year-on-year respectively. The average daily processing volume was 35.8116 million transactions with a total amount of 263.076 billion yuan.

The amount of business in the intra-city clearing system maintained a downward trend. In the fourth quarter, the intra-city clearing system processed 98.4909 million transactions with a total amount of 25.01 trillion yuan, with the number of transactions increasing by 8.01% year-on-year and the amount decreasing by 20.36% year-on-year. The average daily processing volume was 1.5633 million transactions with a total amount of 396.947 billion yuan.

The business volume of domestic and foreign currency payment systems continued to grow. In the fourth quarter, the domestic and foreign currency payment systems processed 534,200 transactions with a total amount of US$324.808 billion (equivalent to RMB 2.23 trillion), up 1.72% and 9.73% year-on-year respectively; the average daily processing volume was 8,756.66 transactions with a total amount of US$5.325 billion (equivalent to RMB 36.545 billion).

2. Other payment systems

The average daily processing volume of in-house payment systems of banking financial institutions has declined. In the fourth quarter, the in-house payment systems of banking financial institutions processed 8.58 billion transactions with a total amount of 32.645 trillion yuan, down 0.47% and 7.95% year-on-year respectively. The average daily processing volume was 93.2625 million transactions with a total amount of 3.55 trillion yuan.

The transaction volume of the interbank payment system of bank cards continued to grow. In the fourth quarter, the interbank payment system of bank cards processed 7.64 billion transactions with a total amount of 32.56 trillion yuan, up 21.36% and 23.23% year-on-year respectively. The average daily processing volume was 83.0395 million transactions with a total amount of 353.912 billion yuan.

The business volume of the city commercial bank's bill processing system and payment and clearing system has dropped significantly. In the fourth quarter, the city commercial bank's bill processing system and payment and clearing system processed 7.5387 million transactions with a total amount of 156.79 billion yuan, down 41.85% and 30.41% year-on-year respectively. The average daily processing volume was 81,900 transactions with a total amount of 1.704 billion yuan.

The number of transactions in the Rural Credit Bank Payment and Clearing System maintained rapid growth. In the fourth quarter, the Rural Credit Bank Payment and Clearing System processed 3.048 billion transactions with a total value of RMB 2.63 trillion, up 151.90% and 44.81% year-on-year respectively. The average daily number of transactions processed was 33.1259 million with a total value of RMB 28.62 billion.

The business volume of the RMB cross-border payment system continued to grow. In the fourth quarter, the RMB cross-border payment system processed 393,200 transactions with a total amount of RMB 7.43 trillion, up 15.23% and 43.95% year-on-year respectively. The average daily processing volume was 6,240.64 transactions with a total amount of RMB 117.975 billion.

The NetsUnion platform operated smoothly. In the fourth quarter, the NetsUnion platform processed 80.901 billion transactions with a total amount of RMB 40.51 trillion. The average daily number of transactions processed was 879 million with a total amount of RMB 440.303 billion.

III. Bank Settlement Account

The number of RMB bank settlement accounts has grown steadily. By the end of the fourth quarter, there were 10.13 billion RMB bank settlement accounts opened nationwide, up 2.63% from the previous quarter, and the growth rate was 0.05 percentage points lower than the previous quarter.

The number of unit bank settlement accounts increased slightly. As of the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 61.1887 million unit bank settlement accounts were opened nationwide, a month-on-month increase of 2.38%, and the growth rate decreased by 0.60 percentage points. Among them, there were 43.3498 million basic deposit accounts, 14.0788 million general deposit accounts, 3.5745 million special deposit accounts, and 185,600 temporary deposit accounts, accounting for 70.85%, 23.01%, 5.84% and 0.30% of the total number of unit bank settlement accounts, respectively. This quarter, the number of basic deposit accounts increased by 1.2186 million, the number of general deposit accounts increased by 164,900, the number of special deposit accounts increased by 38,300, and the number of temporary deposit accounts decreased by 2,000.

The number of personal bank settlement accounts grew steadily. By the end of the fourth quarter, there were 10.068 billion personal bank settlement accounts nationwide, an increase of 258 million from the end of the previous quarter, a month-on-month increase of 2.63%, and a growth rate of 0.04 percentage points lower than the previous quarter. The average number of accounts per person reached 7.24.

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