In recent years, in response to mobile payment demand arising from the penetration of smart-phones and rapid development of mobile internet, ICBC has accelerated the promotion and application of its own instant payment product “ICBC e Payment”. By the end of 2014, the number of the App users exceeded 40 million, and the annual trading volume amounted to around RMB 55 billion, up by 800% year on year.

According to an ICBC official, “ICBC e Payment” is a quick payment product launched to meet customers’ demand for small-sum payments, and applicable to both PCs and mobile phones. By completing identity verification via “mobile phone number + last 6 digits of bank account number (account alias) + dynamic password”, customers can carry out small-sum e-payment transactions, which takes into account the customer demand for payment security and convenience.

Compared with the quick payment products launched by third-party payment companies, “ICBC e Payment” has the following four features: first is speed. It supports 11.2 million concurrent transactions per second, which can be processed by the system in 0.123 millisecond, and help customers complete all kinds of seckilling and purchases in an instant manner. Second is security. After inputting the SMS verification code, customers also need to enter the last 6 digits of their account numbers (or account alias) before making a payment, which can prevent the potential risk of illegal use arising from the loss of mobile phones or information theft. Furthermore, ICBC also provides customers with a balance change alert service, allowing customers to have a real-time update on any fund change in their accounts. As all transactions are conducted at the Bank end, this can effectively avert the risk of customer information leaks and theft of funds that may occur when transactions are redirected to a third-party trading platform. As customer information upon registration at “ICBC e Payment” is verified at the Bank end, which is safer than third-party payment apps, this can guarantee the security of customer information and funds. In addition, after opening “ICBC e Payment” accounts, customers can also enable the balance change alert function, adding another protection to account security. Third is universality. For online shoppers that choose products on e-commerce platforms such as taobao.com, tmall.com, jd.com, vip.com, and amazon.cn, after registering at “ICBC e Payment”, they can use the App anywhere without having to register a payment wallet on each of these websites. Fourth is diverse application scenarios. As the application scope of the App increasingly widens, all the merchants that have enabled direct online payment function with ICBC or on major third-party platforms, support customers to complete order transactions using “ICBC e Payment”. Moreover, customers can also make payments via this App for buying air tickets on the websites of airline companies including Air China, and train tickets on the 12306 website.