September 28th, Beijing – ICBC announced the official launch of Elite Club Account Chip Card (PBOC 2.0 standard) and ICBC Platinum Chip Card (CUP standard). ICBC is the first bank among the peers in China to launch chip cards. ICBC Platinum chip cards are issued as credit cards and will be available nationwide as of Sep. 28th. Elite Club Account chip cards are debit cards. 15 ICBC branches, amongst Beijing Branch, Shanghai Branch, Guangdong Branch, Jiangsu Branch and Zhejiang Branch, will begin the first rollout and eventually to all regions in China. Guests at the launch ceremony are: ICBC President Mr. Yang Kaisheng, ICBC Vice President Mr. Zhang Furong, Chairman of the Board of China UnionPay Mr. Liu Tinghuan , and officials from People's Bank of China, China Banking Regulatory Commission and Office of the Leading Group for the Coordination of State Gold Card Project.
The chip cards launched by ICBC are bank cards at the very top end. Each chip card is embedded with a microchip that can store much more information. The new chip cards not only perform all the banking functions of magnetic-stripe cards, but also include a line up of intelligent functions for offline transactions, contactless transactions, member management and loyalty programs. Besides, the use of chip offers additional card security since it is virtually impossible to make a counterfeit copy of the card.
According to ICBC spokesperson, the Bank aims to offer premium services to users of Elite Club Account and platinum card through the launch of chip cards. Customers are welcome to apply the new chip cards starting from Sep. 28th. No extra charges by ICBC. Besides, holders of Elite Club Account chip cards are now entitled to different kinds of priority wealth management services and special offers in inter-city deposit and withdrawal, remittance, report of loss. While value-added services to platinum cardholders include free access to airport VIP lounges, aviation accident insurance, discounted or waived fees.
ICBC is also one of the commercial banks taking part in China's R&D in chip cards at the earliest stage. Since then, ICBC goes for a long time in the driver seat in terms of research and development of chip card technology, industry cooperation and card-issuing scale. As early as 1995, ICBC issued the first smart card in China under the approval of People's Bank of China. Towards the end of 2005, ICBC was the first Chinese bank migrating to EMV standard and issued the first EMV-compliant chip credit card in China. In 2007, ICBC issued new version of Peony Commuter Card, the first chip card in China compliant to PBOC 2.0 standard. Meanwhile, ICBC introduces chip card functions in many products as China Southern Sky Pearl Peony Credit Card, Peony Parkson Co-brand Card, and Guangdong-Shenzhen Railway Peony Credit Card.
As commented by industry veterans, millions of chip cards in use in countries around the world today points the way where the bank card industry is heading. Being the largest commercial bank in China, ICBC makes the first move to rollout chip cards in large scale. The bank not only enhances its level of bank card services, but also contributes significantly to the universal acceptance of chip card in China, to the healthy development of the market.
Over the years, ICBC has put incessant efforts on bank card products and function innovations, raising the service level to customers at all times. By staying ahead the two core indexes measured by the number of bank cards issued and cardholders transaction volume, ICBC the "double-winner" is comfortably edging out the peers to take the top spots by being the largest credit card bank in China and the bank with the largest transaction volume by cardholders. Until the end of August of 2009, ICBC has issued bank cards of more than 270 million where 48 million are credit cards, while spending by cardholders up to RMB 870 billion during the first eight months of this year.
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About Chip Card
Chip card is a bank card using chip as the storage medium. The chip on the card is essentially a tiny computer that can store large volume of information, including encrypted keys, digital certificates and fingerprints. The chip can process many functions in parallel. Holding one card is analogous to having many bank cards at the same time. Apart from being used for payment, chip cards support a host of different functions and applications under one platform, ranging from discount and loyalty programs, identification and authentication, exit and entry a building, paying traveling expenses or storing medical information.
Today in the market there are two standards about chip card. EMV standard is widely adopted internationally and PBOC 2.0 standard is stated by People's Bank of China. ICBC issued the first EMV-standard credit card in China in December, 2005 and the first PBOC 2.0 standard credit card in November, 2007. The newly-launched Elite Club Account Chip Card and Peony Platinum Chip Card adopt the PBOC 2.0 standard.
Chip cards have two types: chip-only or chip-and-magnetic stripe. A chip-only card uses the chip as the transaction medium, only accepted at chip-ready terminals. Chips cards with a magnetic strip support both the chip and magnetic-stripe. When a chip card is presented at merchants with chip-ready terminals, information is read from the chip. When a chip card is presented at merchants without chip-ready terminals, information is read from the magnetic stripe, in such case the use of a chip-and-magnetic-stripe card is the same as a magnetic-stripe card. The chip cards mentioned in this launch are all issued as chip-and-magnetic-stripe cards.