On July 15, 2016, ICBC officially announced in Beijing that, according to the latest data from Payments Source, a widely-recognized international institution, ICBC has become the world’s largest credit card issuer, with 115,000,000 credit cards issued in total. In addition, ICBC has launched bank-wide QR code payment product covering online, offline and O2O payment scenarios, becoming the first commercial bank providing QR code payment product in China.

President Yi Huiman said at the press conference that credit card is the most active field of innovation among commercial banks, and also ICBC’s most distinctive mark of market-oriented reform and specialized development. After 30 years from the first Red Cotton Card issued in Guangzhou in 1987, ICBC credit cards have historically changed from zero to over one hundred million in volume, from an emerging sector to a household name and from China to the world. ICBC currently takes the lead in the credit card market with annual consumption of RMB 2.8 trillion and loan balance of over RMB 430 billion, and has basically realized the goal of becoming the world’s largest card issuer and No. 1 credit card brand in China. The overall strength of ICBC credit card products are providing consistent fuel to the real economy as well as the economic transformation and upgrading.

ICBC’s QR code payment product is a new type of mobile payment product designed to the trend of fragmented online consumption in the age of mobile internet. Its simple QR code “scanning” function covers online, offline and O2O payment scenarios, significantly improving payment efficiency and usability. The product has not only all functions of currently mainstream code scanning products in the market, but also takes the lead in using the cutting-edge token technology of International Settlement Organization to hide card number, which can effectively protect customers’ fund and information security. ICBC will further improve online and offline payment system comprising traditional payment via cards, quick-pass payment via cellphone and instant payment via scanning code, seamlessly incorporating payment product into scenarios of shopping, taking taxi, dinning and entertainment to inspire different patterns of consumption demand.

According to an industry expert, for commercial banks, QR code payment business can not only improve general consumption environment, but also dig into the operation condition and financing demand of medium and small merchants by using big data technology to provide all-round financial services such as credit financing, deposit and wealth management, electronic banking and payroll service, which may reduce threshold and cost for small and micro businesses to acquire financial services through data-based, pure credit and full-online financing products, address financing difficulty for small and micro businesses.