China Payment and Clearing Association: In 2017, more than 160 billion non-cash payment transactions were handled nationwide

The China Payment and Clearing Association released the "China Payment and Clearing Industry Operation Report (2018)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") in Beijing. Deputy Secretary-General of the Association Kang Lin hosted the press conference. Deputy Secretary-General Pan Song introduced the main contents of the "Report". The heads of the Payment and Settlement Department of the People's Bank of China and the Research Bureau of the People's Bank of China commented on the "Report". Representatives of more than 220 member units in the payment and clearing industry attended the meeting.

The report points out that the scale of participants in my country's payment services is constantly expanding, and the diversified payment service organizations with the People's Bank of China as the core, banking financial institutions as the foundation, and licensed clearing institutions and non-bank payment institutions as supplements are constantly enriched. Among them, banking financial institutions are still the main force. More than 220,000 business outlets established by more than 4,500 banking financial institutions have built a huge in-house payment network and face-to-face business channels, which has laid the foundation for ensuring the innovation and rapid development of payment services and supporting the professional services of other retail payment service providers; non-bank payment institutions have emerged as a new force. As of the end of 2017, there were 243 non-bank payment institutions in the country, of which 218 legal person payment institutions counted by the Payment and Clearing Association had a total of 1,541 branches. Internet payment, bank card acquiring and prepaid card acceptance businesses cover all prefecture-level cities in the country, and the number of employees and operating income have begun to take shape.

Data from the report shows that in 2017, the country handled more than 160 billion non-cash payment transactions with a total amount of more than 37.5 trillion yuan, up 28.59% and 1.97% year-on-year respectively. The growth in the number of transactions slowed slightly, while the growth in the amount slowed down significantly. Non-cash payment transactions tend to be high-frequency and small-amount.

In 2017, the downward trend of bill business slowed down, with a total of 256 million bill transactions nationwide, with an amount of more than 170 trillion yuan, down 12.79% and 8.21% year-on-year respectively. The construction of Shanghai Bill Exchange has made significant progress in terms of participating entities and electronic bill transactions, and the new business model of the Bill Exchange has been initially formed and developed.

The electronic commercial bill business has developed rapidly. In 2017, the electronic commercial bill system issued more than 6.5 million bills with an amount of more than 12 trillion yuan, up 184.38% and 52.02% year-on-year respectively; accepted 6.78 million bills with an amount of more than 13 trillion yuan, up 185.17% and 51.75% year-on-year respectively; discounted more than 1.79 million bills with an amount of 6.95 trillion yuan, up 113.96% and 20.50% year-on-year respectively; rediscounted more than 5 million bills with an amount of more than 44 trillion yuan, with the number of bills increasing by 62.71% year-on-year and the amount decreasing by 2.89% year-on-year. There were 440,000 pledged repurchases with an amount of nearly 7 trillion yuan, up 181.20% and 104.90% year-on-year respectively.

The bank card business continued to maintain rapid and healthy development. More than 149 billion bank card transactions were made throughout the year, with a total amount of more than 760 trillion yuan, up 29.41% and 2.67% year-on-year respectively. The reform of the pricing mechanism for bank card swipe fees has achieved initial results, promoting the standardized development of the bank card acquiring market. The business tax to value-added tax policy has been officially implemented, and the invoice circulation mechanism has been initially streamlined. The implementation of the two has jointly reduced the operating costs of merchants. Bank card consumer business has grown strongly, and the national bank card penetration rate has continued to rise, reaching 48.71%. With the improvement in security and rapid popularization of non-cash payment tools such as mobile Internet remote payment and near-field payment, the medium attribute of bank cards has tended to fade, and the trend of shifting from card-based payment to account-based payment has emerged.

Prepaid card business is developing steadily under the standardization. In 2017, 153 prepaid card issuers issued a total of 189 million cards with a total amount of more than 89 billion yuan. The number of cards issued decreased by 14.48% year-on-year, and the amount of cards issued increased by 9.09% year-on-year. 114 prepaid card institutions handled more than 11.6 billion prepaid card transactions with a total amount of more than 87 billion yuan.

In 2017, the policy of classifying and supervising personal bank accounts and payment accounts was effectively implemented, and the multi-level classification framework of personal accounts in my country was basically formed. Cardless and mobile payment methods based on II and III bank accounts and I and II payment accounts provide more convenient and efficient choices for small-amount and high-frequency payments in daily life consumption of the public. In 2017, the public recognition of II and III accounts of commercial banks continued to increase. A total of more than 500 million II and III personal bank accounts were opened, with a total inflow of nearly 11 trillion yuan and an outflow of more than 10 trillion yuan, and an account balance of more than 439 billion yuan. Non-bank payment institutions engaged in online payment business opened more than 3.2 billion payment accounts, with I, II and III accounting for 41.54%, 43.84% and 14.62% respectively. In 2017, more than 400 million real-name payment accounts were added, of which the number of newly added I and II payment accounts accounted for 76.24%.

Emerging payment businesses maintained rapid growth. The scale of mobile payment business continued to grow rapidly. In 2017, domestic commercial banks processed more than 37.5 billion mobile payment transactions with a total amount of more than 20.2 trillion yuan, up 46.06% and 28.80% year-on-year, respectively. Non-bank payment institutions processed more than 239 billion mobile payment transactions with a total amount of more than 10.5 trillion yuan, up 146.53% and 106.06% year-on-year, respectively. The growth rate of the scale of Internet payment business slowed down or declined. In 2017, my country's commercial banks processed more than 48.5 billion online payment transactions with a total amount of more than 20.7 trillion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 5.20% in the number of transactions and a year-on-year decrease of 0.47% in the amount. Non-bank payment institutions processed more than 48.3 billion Internet payment transactions with a total amount of more than 38 trillion yuan, down 27.14% and 28.61% year-on-year, respectively. In 2017, the amount of internet payment and mobile payment business of non-bank payment institutions accounted for 26.9% and 73.1% of the total amount of online payment business respectively. Compared with 51.6% and 48.4% in 2016, the proportion of mobile payment business increased significantly, which had a significant substitution effect on internet payment business.

Based on the industry data accumulated over a long time series in previous years, the report adds data analysis on barcode payment-related businesses. In 2017, barcode payment quickly became popular, driving mobile payment from online to offline scenarios, and the transaction volume continued to expand. Throughout the year, non-bank payment institutions handled more than 7.3 billion barcode payment transactions with a total amount of 910 billion yuan, accounting for 99.93% of consumption. The majority of single consumption amounts were below 500 yuan, and the characteristics of small, micro, fast and convenient payment became more and more obvious.

The "Report" is the industry analysis report released by the China Payment and Clearing Association for the sixth consecutive year. It elaborates on the new achievements, new characteristics and new trends of my country's payment and clearing industry in the past year. It not only sorts out the development context of the industry, but also grasps the development trends of the industry; it not only reflects regulatory requirements, but also brings together the experience and practices of market institutions; it not only has an in-depth analysis of hot issues, but also has an industry perspective on research topics.

The report sorted out the current status of the policy, legal environment and regulatory system of my country's payment and clearing industry, and discussed the situation of the industry's policy, law and regulatory environment. The People's Bank of China adheres to the problem-oriented approach, and is brave in reform and innovation to strengthen the guidance of the system in response to the problems existing in the development of the payment and clearing industry, and promote the healthy and orderly development of the payment service market. The China Payment and Clearing Association gives full play to the role of industry self-discipline, further facilitates policy transmission, formulates various industry standards, payment risk management guidelines and self-discipline norms, and promotes industry players to strengthen self-discipline and enhance self-discipline capabilities. Payment service market players firmly establish and practice the new development concept, take the initiative to prevent and resolve risks, and accelerate the improvement of their payment service capabilities and levels.

Since its official launch in 2013, the "China Payment and Clearing Industry Operation Report" has increasingly become the crystallization of the industry's collective wisdom and a brand reading material of the association. Its social attention and influence have continued to increase. Government departments, industry personnel and research institutions have used the report as a reference for decision-making, a study textbook and a research guide.