Postal Financial Services

Postal Savings business

The postal savings business kept a stable and coordinated development trend in 2005, with ever-increasing savings balance and market share. By the end of the year, the postal savings balance had reached RMB 1359.87 billion, ranking number 5 after the four state-owned commercial banks, namely the Industrial and Commercial Bank, the Agriculture Bank, the Communication Bank and China Bank. Compared with the previous year, the balance increased by RMB 281.19 billion with the increase rate of 26.1% and the accounts amounted to 360 million with an increase of 84.27 million accounts. The networked service points providing savings and withdrawing at different localities for one account reached over 35,000, providing the savings service with the most service access both in rural and urban areas and the vastest geographic coverage.

In 2005, the business transactions of savings and withdrawing at different localities and account transfer reached 400 million with the total volume of RMB 1.7 trillion. New services depending on the unified system for passbook of savings and call deposit were becoming the new growth points for some provincial postal savings and remittance bureaus, which brought about good economic benefits with the coordinated development of both business scale and performances.

Business of Collection and Payment (Agent Services)

In 2005, postal savings enjoyed a good reputation and acknowledgement among farmers and local governments by actively serving the agricultural industry, the countryside and farmers including collection of rural electricity fee, agent distribution of the direct subsidies for grain producers and other government's fiscal subsidies, and distribution of rewards for farmers complying with the Family Policy. In cities, new services were exploited such as collection of state and local taxation, distribution of allowances for lowest income families and the redundancy pay or dismissal wage for workers from the transformed or the bankrupt enterprises. In 2005, the business volume of agent services was RMB 248.3 billion with an increase of 14.45% compared with the previous year.

The Green Card of Postal Savings (the Debit Card)

By the end of 2005, the green-card holders were103 million with a savings balance of RMB 151 billion, increases of 48.39% and 54.05% respectively. The newly issued green-cards were 33.69 million. The average balance of each card account increased from RMB 1,408.44 in 2004 to RMB 1,461.19, with an increase of 3.75%. The transaction of green card in 2005 was 440 million with an increase of 100% compared to the same period of the previous year. The transaction volume reached RMB 1 trillion with an increase of 159%, among which the consumption transaction was 23 million with an increase of 84% and the consumption volume was RMB 29.3 billion with an increase of 183%. The quality and environment of ATMs and POS providing 24-hour service were obviously improved. Up to the end of 2005, there were 7,175 ATMs, 5,690 POS and 4,689 contracted business clients accepting the consumption by green-cards.

Agent Insurance Service

By the end of 2005, there were 29,713 post offices providing life insurance agent service and 25,144 providing property insurance agent service, increased by 2,475 and 3,197 respectively over the previous year. The accumulated applicants were 23.96 million with an increase of 5.48 million applicants. The accumulated insurance premium was RMB 22.15 billion.

The real-time agency insurance policy printing system with a nationally unified version was built in 2005, by which many insurance products of insurance companies like China Life Insurance, the Pacific Insurance and Taikang Insurance were sold at postal offices that expanded the role of insurance counters. The service quality and market competitiveness of agent insurance service for China Post were dramatically improved.

Open Fund Agent System in a highly collective mode was established and put in operation in 2005. The system was connected and adjusted with 5 Fund companies and the pilot operation was going on smoothly, which gave full support to the overall planning of national fund business and the expansion of open fund agent service for China Post.

Domestic Electronic Money Transfer Service

By the end of 2005, the 161 million drafts of remittance for electronic money transfer service was made with RMB 189.391 billion remitted. The products include Notification Remittance, 24-hour Electronic Remittance, 2-hour Remittance, Real Time Remittance and Account Transfer Remittance, together with two newly created services in this year: Business Remittance and Remittance Online.

Up to 2005, 45,000 post offices provided electronic money transfer services, among which nearly 30,000 post offices are computerized and networked and 66% of which are located in countryside. RMB 130 billion of the RMB 180 billion remitted money were sent to rural areas, occupying 70% of the remitted sum. The postal money transfer service gave its full support to the development of the agriculture, the countryside and farmers.

International Money Transfer Service

In 2005, 1.1 million international transactions for international money transfer service were operated with USD 1.5 billion sent and picked up. Keeping a rapid developing trend, the international money transfer service mainly focused on three products: the West Union agent service, which occupied a share of 94.55% of the overall international money transfer service; the postal remittance with a share of 1.61% and the Bank Contracted Remittance with a share of 3.84% (the contracted sending and picking-up of remittance service between posts of China and other countries and domestic banks).

Approved by China Banking Regulatory Commission, 92 postal savings offices in Guangdong, Beijing and Fujian started the operation of foreign currency savings business in succession as of July, 2005. By the end of 2005, the international electronic money transfer service covered more than 2,000 cities and towns, with 20,000 computerized offices connecting with cooperative entities abroad by network, providing the service in over 200 countries and regions.