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China maintains galloping pace of growth in payment card issuance, acceptance

October 19, 2016

China today is home to 43 percent of the world's payment cards and 29 percent of its EFTPOS terminals, making it the largest market for card issuing and acceptance, according to new research from RBR.

The report, "Global Payment Cards Data and Forecasts to 2021," shows that China's card market continued its rapid expansion in 2015, with numbers topping 5.5 billion, a 10 percent year-over-year increase.

Rural development strategies by banks are driving this growth, with new products targeted at farmers and small business owners.

Expansion into rural areas also produced a 43 percent increase in the number of EFTPOS terminals, to a total of 22.8 million, RBR said.

The Chinese market finally opened to foreign players in June 2015, with the end of the UnionPay monopoly on domestic bank card clearing.

Visa and MasterCard hope to claim a share of the market, and are working to comply with security regulations and encryption standards set by the People's Bank of China.

"It will be interesting to see how the market develops now PBOC is opening the door for international competitors," said RBR's Chris Herbert, who led the research. "We would not expect to see seismic shifts, but even a modest share of such a vast market would have a significant impact on Visa and MasterCard's global businesses."