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Foreign banks join RMB savings business

By Xu Shenglan (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-05-13 15:04

Residents in China will soon have more choices for bank cards as more foreign banks, including HSBC, Citibank, and Standard Chartered, are preparing to open RMB deposit businesses in the country, a recent report by the Beijing Business News said.

On May 6, Bank of East Asia announced that its debit card system had passed central bank testing, making it the first foreign lender to be authorized.

"We are carrying out more detailed preparatory work including setting the standard to classify clients and debit card commission charges," an expert at Bank of East Asia (China) told the newspaper.

Other foreign banks are also preparing to launch RMB debit cards. An expert at Standard Chartered Bank said that the lender had applied to the central bank last year to launch its debit card and credit card business, and the preparatory work on its debit card system is coming to a close. "We'd like to launch debit card services as soon as possible," said a bank manager.

A spokesman with HSBC (China) said the China Banking Regulatory Commission approved HSBC (China) to issue RMB debit cards last September. He said HSBC planned to issue debit cards this year, after finishing all the system preparations.

Another manager from Citibank said it began RMB business last April and is busy preparing its debit card business at present. According to her, Citibank (China) has nearly 100 ATMs so far in the Chinese mainland, and will equip more once its debit card business takes root here.