IB Teams with AliPay to Launch Credit Card Uni-card Payment Service
November 12, 2010, IB joined hands with AliPay to launch the AliPay Uni-card payment service for credit cards of the Industrial Bank. The service delivers a more convenient and safer online payment experience for credit card users.
In the past, credit card clients had to activate the online payment service via internet banking or over the counter in order to make payments through the credit card gateway. Every time a payment was made, the user would be required to input a series of information to verify their identity before a transaction could be made, such as the card number, password, card validity period and other information. However, this mode has two drawbacks. The first is that the card holder has to input a large amount of information and the rate of errors is high. The second is that in the absence of sufficient security measures, the card holder's information may be at risk from Trojans, Phishing websites and other threats, which could lead to financial losses.
After activating the AliPay Uni-card service, the user is only required to input personal information the first time so as to bind their AliPay account to a credit card account. After this, the user only needs to input the AliPay password to make an online payment. This way, the card holder is not required to input personal information, and this makes the payment process faster and more convenient. This also significantly reduces the chances of transaction information being intercepted by hackers, thus making the online payment process safer.
Currently, in the traditional offline market, over 50% of payment transactions using bank cards are conducted with credit cards. Online, less than 20% of payments are made using credit cards. “With the increasing popularization of online shopping, many online shoppers have an increasing desire to use their credit cards, as they do in the traditional market. This is a major reason that AliPay and the bank have accelerated their cooperation in the credit card Uni-card service.” AliPay stated that the convenience of one-click payment offered by the credit card Uni-card service will encourage more online shoppers to make payments with their credit cards. This may bring about changes to the existing situation in which debit cards and payment through internet banking are the dominant payment methods.
Statistics show that by the end of September 2010, the number of registered AliPay users had reached 470 million, the daily transaction total exceeded RMB 2 billion and the number of daily transactions reached 7 million, occupying more than half of the market share.
As one of China's top 10 commercial banks, the Industrial Bank has issued over 7 million credit cards. The bank's safe and convenient credit card online banking service has won recognition among internet users. This year, the number of credit card transactions made online had surged, with the volume for September this year recording an increase of 288% compared to the September before.