China Needs A New Banking Infrastructure For Businesses To Prosper

Market Wire, 20050229

Michael Killen, CEO of Killen & Associates, Inc., a research company that specializes in payment systems, speaking at The Asian Banker - Shanghai Banking Association conference in Shanghai, surprised many of the attendees when he stated that, "China needs to start work immediately on building a second national banking/payment infrastructure."

Hans De Backer, Deputy Chief Executive, North Asia, Fortis Bank, Hong Kong said, "I think Mr. Killen's statement came as a surprise because the Chinese have recently started work on a nationwide banking infrastructure. And, along comes this American who said, "If the Chinese really want to leap forward, they better get to work to build a second national banking infrastructure."

Zhou Lu, GM, Bank of China, Shanghai Branch and head of the Shanghai Banking Association, said, "Bank of China and the State Council have approved the China UnionPay charter to build a national banking/payment infrastructure." He goes on to say that the plan fills the nations need to modernize retail payments.

Emmanuel Daniel, Managing Director of The Asian Banker said, "The odds are good that China UnionPay's banking infrastructure will help to revolutionize how consumers shop and how merchants gets paid. It is similar to the VISA and MasterCard infrastructure." Fewer people in China-a vast country of 1.3 billion people use credit cards than those in the US who live within just a fifty-mile radius of MasterCard's headquarters in Purchase, New York. The Asian Banker estimates that no more than 100,000 people in China use a credit card.

Killen says, "I think it is a good idea that the banks have gotten together to help consumers to pay merchants with credit cards. Now they need to get together to help their major businesses pay each other as well as global trading partners." Killen says it is time to build the infrastructure to support services such as electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP), electronic invoice presentment and payment (EIPP), and letters of credit. Michael Killen's speech can be viewed at www.killen.com.

Gordon Gu Vice President, SeuComm Co., Ltd in NanJing, gordongu@online.sh.cn, a provider of wireless solutions says that," Such an infrastructure would help businesses across China to increase revenue, reduce costs, and speed up processes."

Killen & Associates, Inc. publishes studies that businesses and their suppliers-especially banks and IT suppliers, use to help them develop winning electronic payment strategies. Mr. Killen speaks at events and distributes executive-webcast interviews on the Internet. He also produces a weekly cable TV program "The Killen Report." He has written six books.