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11 Nov Credit Card Transactions hit a Record high – ICBC

According to estimates from analysts, a significant number of sales came from spending on credit cards during the 2019’s Singles Day shopping event in China. Whereas, it’s usual to use a credit card to shop in the United States while China famous for its high savings rate and priority for paying only with cash by hand. Else broadly used smartphone payment systems function more similar to a debit card.

However, consumer habits, especially among youngsters of China, are changing – thanks partly to the development of financial tech and partly to rising consumerism. Just take an example that Alibaba-affiliate Ant Financial has a product named Huabei; it provides users with an installment purchase plan or a revolving line of credit. Similarly, JD.com has the same payment product termed as Bai’tiao. The increased use of credit-based products was most ostensible this Double 11, known as Singles Day in China.

The yearly shopping spree on November 11, led by Alibaba, reported record sales of around $38.3 billion (268.4 billion yuan) across its shopping platforms this year. That’s a year-on-year rise of around twenty-six percent – slower than twenty-seven percent growth of 2018. Chinese Ministry of Commerce said that from November 1 to November 11, overall, online retail sales beat 870 billion yuan. During Singles Day of 2019, Leilei Wang, an analyst of Kapronasia fintech forecasts as a minimum half of all purchases on Tmall e-commerce and Alibaba’s Taobao platforms made using Huabei.

Ant Financial’s Digital bank MyBank’s Report

Wang said that this kind of consumer finance boosts a specific amount of consumption. Noting consumers at a young age mainly more willing to try out new means of spending. According to a report from MyBank, Ant Financial digital bank, during the yearly shopping event, Tmall cut interest rates of Huabei to zero on eight million products, five times more products as last year. Another article of Xinhua cited Digital Finance President of Ant Financial, Huang Hao, saying that specifically, businesses that open support for Huabei see transactions upsurge by 38 percent.

Statistics for purchases of Huabei during Singles Day was not shared from Ant Financial. A firm’s representative didn’t respond immediately to a comment’s request. One user said on social media that some of the complications after Singles Day include having to repay Huabei and receiving packages.

Banks did their credit card Business

China Merchants Bank said its transactions of credit card hit a record 27.2 billion yuan on November 11. In contrast, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China said it processed a minimum of twenty billion yuan on the same day shopping event. Banking analyst at Moody’s in Beijing, Nicholas Zhu said in an interview on the phone that lending to businesses has a non-performing loan issue, so the banks all over China are trying to spread into the retail business. He elaborates some banks are working with stores to build installment purchase plans for consumers, which supposedly help those individuals to create a credit history.

The deficiency of a united credit system in China usually made it difficult for several people to get credit cards or loans, particularly migrants working in big cities. However, now, firms such as Alibaba-affiliate Ant Financial have volumes of purchase and data of transactions to better gauge solvency with. Principal at consultancy corporation Oliver Wyman’s Finance & risk, Hang Qian said that the whole market data volume is growing, so banks can improve their capabilities to reduce risks.

Buying Products on Installment becoming more Popular

Several credit cards are offering installment purchase plans in China. Along with the overall use of credit cards, their popularity was more apparent during 2019 Singles Day, Oliver Wyman’s Qian. He said buying on installment becoming more popular in Chinese as well as economical than using a revolving line of credit. He forecasted that the use of installment purchase plans accounted for around sixty to seventy percent of credit use.

An installment purchase e-commerce system run by LexinFintech, Fenqile said that during 2019 Singles Day, gross stock value broke a hundred million yuan in half the time it took in 2018. GMV is the main industry metric gaging the overall dollar value of merchandise sold.

The company said 15-month and two-year plans were the most famous amongst users of Fenqile’s Generation Z (approximately those born in the mid-to-late 1990s), with a usual monthly payment of below two-hundred yuan. iPhone of Apple was the most famous smartphone on the platform. The firm added, noting sales of iPhone 11 during the first eight hours of November 11 were over twice that of the first day the smartphone available on Fenqile.

Extensive Fraud Risk

Increasing the use of consumer credit in China rings several bells regarding irresponsible spending and stories of individuals using various credit products to pay back other accounts abound. Checking to warrant a new customer does not have another open line of credit at an additional financial institution is one technique banks can lessen risks and a zone in which fintech firms can have a plus point with their data as well as analytical abilities. Moody’s Zhu says that China is so large, there are always sections on the fringe.

He said the savings rate of China is above 40%, households contribute to around half and businesses to the other half. Observing that’s partial because businesses do not pay dividends. He added, we have not seen a transparent decrease in that savings rate owing to over-consumption. Within consumption, further individuals start to borrow. In a country of around 1.4 billion population, customer habits also vary by area. Survey of Oliver Wyman of one thousand Chinese consumers in October found that those from the smaller 3rd-tier cities had the lowermost average budget for Singles Day event, but disclosed major willingness than those in tier-one cities (like Beijing) to buy over-the-budget products or brands during the yearly event.