Cash withdrawals fall as mobile payment rises

Source: Xinhua | 2017-04-27

CASH withdrawals using bank cards fell in volume for the first time in China, as the country enters a cashless society with mobile payments growing in popularity.

About 65.5 trillion yuan (US$9.5 trillion) was withdrawn using bank cards last year, down 10.46 percent year on year, a report from the Payment & Clearing Association of China showed yesterday.

The growth rate of payment via bank cards has fallen for three consecutive years, due to sluggish growth of large-volume transactions and increasing use of mobile payments, such as paying by screening a barcode, said Wang Suzhen, deputy secretary of the association.

Meanwhile, online payment grew fast, with non-banking payment platforms seeing their business volume more than double in 2016.

Chinese also tend to use mobile terminals more than computers to pay online, the report showed.