China: a New Paradigm in Branchless Banking?
China: A New Paradigm in Branchless Banking? Leesa Shrader and Eric Duflos March 2014 1 Acknowledgments This paper includes input from Stephen Rasmussen (CGAP) and Peter Zetterli, Stefan Staschen, Mingyao Zhou, and Lingjun Wang (consultants). The authors especially thank Stephen Rasmussen, and Greg Chen (CGAP) for reviewing the report, and the IFC Advisory Team in China: Fangfang Jiang, Yolanda Yun Zhu, and Zhifang Luo for their great collaboration during the field visits. The authors also thank Susan Pleming and Anna Nunan (CGAP) for editing the report. The authors would like to thank IFC, PBOC, China Union Pay, F-Road, and the Postal Savings Bank for their support for field work during field evaluation of the agent banking pilots in China, as well as Shift Thought Ltd for its June 2013 special report for CGAP, “Digital Money in China.” GENERAL BENCHMARKS Population: 1,351 billion (2012) (World Bank 2012b) Urban population: 52% urban, 48% rural (2012) (World Bank 2012b) Population below poverty line: 13.4%—128 million (2011) (World Bank n.d.) GNI per capita $9,040 (2012) (World Bank 2012b) Gini coefficient: 0. 474 (2012) (Economist 2013c) Number of SIMs: 1.104 billion (December 2012) (Ericsson 2013, p. 2) Commercial bank branches per 100,000 adults: 7.72 (2012)1 ATM per 100,000 adults: 37.51 (IMF 2012a) Towns/villages with no access: 1,865 from total 40,466 (2012) (Tianqi 2013) % of adults who have used a bank account in the past 12 months: 64 (World Bank 2012a) Household loan accounts with commercial banks per 1,000 adults: 846.74 (IMF 2012a) Internet users: 564 million (2012) (China Internet Network Information Center 2013) 1 World Bank, Commercial Bank Branch Data 2012, accessed 29 January 2014.
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