The consumption volume of ICBC credit cards hit a new high in the first half of 2016, reaching RMB 1,397.2 billion, up by 32.4% over the same period last year, positively driving reasonable growth of consumption.

According to an ICBC official, by focusing on demand for diversified service amid updated household consumption, the Bank has launched a series of credit card products catering to the personal and diversified needs, materializing potential consumption while improving customers’ life standards. As at the end of June 2016, the Bank issued more than 117 million of credit cards, making it the largest issuer in the world. Its credit card loan balance surpassed RMB 430 billion, which satisfies the diversified and personalized demands of individuals and micro and small merchants for card usage in shopping, tourism, education, studying abroad, auto purchase, online shopping and business operation.

ICBC has currently built a credit card system covering working class, college students, overseas tourists, high net worth individuals, micro and small merchants, car users and online shoppers. By installing over 1.1 million POS terminals in nearly one million merchants across the country, the Bank has extended the service of credit card to the "arteries" and even the "capillary" of the real economy, nurtured an extensive base of rational consumers, and deepened consumer habit of credit consumption. In response to the increasing online shopping demands, ICBC has been keen on creating an online credit card service system featuring "Internet + finance + life" in recent years. ICBC is the first in China to introduce cellphone-based credit cards which cover iPhones and Android phones, and support offline “near-field” waving payment and online “far-field” one-click payment. ICBC e-life and Merchant Home, the Bank’s two Internet service platforms, may provide services in multiple life scenarios such as merchant search, positioning/navigation and group buy discount. ICBC has also lately taken the lead in Chinese commercial banks in unveiling QR code payment product covering online and offline and O2O payment, which raises the efficiency and convenience of payment, improves the consumption environment, and can be used to dig into the operation status and financing needs of small and medium merchants and lower the threshold and costs of financial services for micro and small enterprises.