March 28, 2007
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NEWS: Chinese Migrant Bank Cards BoomThe People's Bank of China launched a program in December of 2005 to get special bank cards in the hands of the millions of migrant workers in its big cities. With just over fifteen month's perspective on the situation, it seems that the measure has been a success. China Union Pay - a joint-stock financial service institution founded by more than 80 domestic banks and financial institutions - announced at the beginning of this week that the transaction volume on these cards has hit two billion yuan (250 million in US dollars).
The Bank set up means for migrant workers to obtain the cards at commercial banks, post offices, and rural financial institutions. Since the program's inception, the service has spread to 12 provinces, regions, and municipalities. The bank card program was designed to increase the safety of migrant workers' wages, typically paid in cash. Because many rural outposts do not have adequate banking facilities, the workers were faced with the prospect of having to carry their entire season's salary home in cash, for lack of a safe and quick means of money transfer. The bank cards let the workers deposit money into their accounts in the cities in which they work, and withdraw it again from rural credit cooperative outposts back home. To further assist the migrant workers in using the cards and keeping their money safe, the central bank has convinced all Chinese banks issuing these debit cards to drop the standard service charge on cash withdrawals from 1% to 0.8% for the migrant workers only. This move decreased the highest possible charge on cash withdrawals from 50 yuan to 20 yuan.
China shelters over 100 million migrant workers annually, who work in big cities and return to their hometowns with their earnings to support their families.
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