Bank card payment seen rising (2)

Meanwhile, Chinese consumers have become more accustomed to paying by bank card. The average bank card transaction value per capita reached 4,152 yuan in the third quarter, up from 3,619 yuan in the second quarter.

Bank card transactions accounted for 46.3 percent of China's retail sales in the third quarter of 2012, up 6.1 percentage points from a year earlier, according to the central bank.

"But the proportion is still lower than that in developed countries, where it amounts to up to 70 percent," Zhang said.

Industry experts hope that lowering bank card transaction fees will promote the use of bank cards.

Starting from February 25, 2013 China's businesses will pay 23 to 40 percent less in transaction fees when their customers pay by bank card, Shanghai Securities News, a daily newspaper affiliated to the Xinhua News Agency, reported Wednesday, citing sources from commercial banks.

Restaurant owners have complained in the past about their profit margins being squeezed by high bank card transaction fees. Currently, China UnionPay charges companies in the catering sector a fee of 2 percent of the transaction value.

"I found many restaurants, even some posh ones in Beijing's Sanlitun area, declined to accept payment by bank card," He Jie, a 29-year-old white-collar worker in Beijing, told the Global Times Monday.

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