In October, 1987, ICBC Guangzhou Branch officially issued the first regional credit card of the bank and named it "Red Cotton Card". The card took red cotton flower (city flower of Guangzhou) and paddy (Guangzhou City is also called Paddy City) as its prominent sign and Haizhu Bridge as its frame picture. There were two types of Red Cotton Cards: gold and silver. The gold card had gold as its base color and the silver card had grey. Red Cotton Card provided three main functions: savings, transfer and overdraft. It can be used for interbank deposit and withdrawal, transfer and consumption within the area of Guangzhou City as well as Fanyu County.

In January 1989, ICBC resolved to issue a uniform credit card. In February of the same year, ICBC decided on "peony", the symbol of peace, happiness and prosperity, as the name of this credit card to express its sincere good wishes to card users. With peony's status as "queen of the flowers" and prospect of "peony card taking the lead", this name signifies ICBC's courage and confidence of being the top. The first peony card had dark bronze as its base color and the pattern of gilded peony flower possessed supreme elegance and well displayed ICBC's demeanor as a first-class bank in China. Its main functions were credit consumption, cash deposit and withdrawal as well as transfer. There were still two types of the card: gold and silver. On October 15th, 1989, ICBC officially issued Peony Credit Card in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Guangzhou. 15 days later, the first consumption bills signed by card users were sent back to Beijing Branch, signaling the success of Peony Card's initial launch. With the appearance of Peony Card, Red Cotton Card as a regional card was gradually replaced by Peony Card.

On October 14th, "Peony" was registered as Peony Card's patent, which was China's first registered patent for Peony Card.

Note: Information provided on this page is for your reference only.  The specific details should be subject to the business operation process as well as the announcements and stipulations at your local bank outlet.ICBC reserves the right of final interpretation.