Posts tagged ‘China Construction Bank’

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18/02/2016

Apple Pay takes on China’s internet kings in mobile payments | Reuters

Apple Inc launched its mobile payment system in China on Thursday in a bid to convince the hundreds of millions of users of the country’s entrenched, dominant services to switch.

Photo

“We think China could be our largest Apple Pay market,” Jennifer Bailey, vice president of Apple Pay, told Reuters in an interview in Beijing.

In an early boost, China’s biggest lender, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC), was among the banks that said earlier this week that customers would be able to use Apple Pay from Thursday.

However, Apple Pay has not had an easy ride so far in China, the fifth country to get the service. Even in its U.S. home market, Apple has faced skeptical retailers in its effort to develop a new revenue stream.

China is not likely to prove any easier to crack.

“People switch applications for significantly better experiences, it (Apple) has to deliver not just a little bit more secure, or a little bit easier to use,” said Mark Natkin, founder of Marbridge Consulting.

Greater China is Apple’s second-largest market by revenue, and the world’s biggest smartphone market. By the end of 2015, 358 million people, more than the U.S. population, had already taken to buying goods and services by mobile phone, according to the China Internet Network Information Center.

The vast majority are using payment services from China’s two biggest Internet companies that have existed for years.

Social networking and gaming firm Tencent Holdings Ltd operates WeChat Payment, and e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, through its Internet finance affiliate Ant Financial Services Group, runs Alipay.

“With 100 percent saturation of local payment systems, no one in China is clamoring for Apple Pay,” said one retailer who declined to be named for fear of harming business prospects. “Today, everyone has a local payment option on their phone, so Apple Pay is a solution in need of a problem.”

Source: Apple Pay takes on China’s internet kings in mobile payments | Reuters

Posted in China alert, Economics, electronic payment, Technology | 1 Comment »

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20/07/2014

China, Brazil close plane, finance, infrastructure deals | Reuters

In a raft of energy, finance and industry accords signed before presidents Xi Jinping and Dilma Rousseff, the two nations agreed to join forces to build railways to help Brazil cut its infrastructure deficit and feed China’s appetite for commodities.

English: Official photo of President Rousseff,...

English: Official photo of President Rousseff, taken by official photographer, at Alvorada Palace on January 9th, 2011. Français : Photo de Dilma Rousseff, prise par un photographe officiel, dans le Palácio da Alvorada le 9 janvier, 2011. Português: Foto oficial da presidente Dilma Rousseff feita no Palácio do Alvorada no dia 9 de janeiro de 2011 pelo fotografo oficial. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Trade between China and Brazil soared to $83.3 billion last year from $3.2 billion in 2002, with iron ore, soy and oil making up the bulk of Brazilian exports, making China the South American nation’s biggest trade partner.

China’s Eximbank extended a $5 billion credit line to Vale to buy ships and equipment from Chinese companies, but there was no mention of a solution to an impasse over China’s refusal to allow giant, bulk iron ore carriers used by Vale SA to dock at Chinese ports.

In a sign of deepening financial ties between the two members of the BRICs bloc of emerging nations, the China Construction Bank formalized acquisition of 72 percent of Brazilian mid-size lender Banco Industrial e Comercial SA, a 1.62 billion real deal agreed in October.

Xi visited Brasilia after a BRICS summit that set up a new $100 billion development bank, to be based in Shanghai, that will fund infrastructure projects, providing developing nations with an alternative source of funding to Western-dominated multilateral financial institutions.

via China, Brazil close plane, finance, infrastructure deals | Reuters.

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07/05/2013

* Bank of China closes account of key North Korean bank

China responds to US-initiated action action North Korea.

SCMP: “Bank of China has shut the account of North Korea’s main foreign exchange bank, which was hit with US sanctions in March after Washington accused it of helping finance Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme.

Chinese Bank of China

Chinese Bank of China (Photo credit: epSos.de)

The state-run Foreign Trade Bank had been told its transactions had been halted and its account closed, Bank of China, the country’s biggest foreign exchange bank, said in a brief statement on Tuesday. It gave no reason for the closure and the bank declined to comment further.

The closure is the first significant, publicly announced step taken by a Chinese entity to curb its dealings with North Korea in the wake of international pressure to punish Pyongyang over its banned nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

“I think it is indeed a very noteworthy action,” said Zhang Liangui, a North Korea expert at China’s Central Party School, adding Bank of China was probably concerned about its reputation and thus closed the account.

“In taking this action I think there are political considerations as well as considerations about its own interests.”

The US sanctions prohibit any transactions between US entities or individuals and the Foreign Trade Bank.

Japan has followed suit while Australia is expected to do the same soon. Washington has also urged the European Union to impose sanctions on the Foreign Trade Bank and has raised the issue with China, although Beijing has not commented publicly on the bank.

Experts have said Washington’s move was designed to make foreign banks that do business in the United States think twice about dealing with the Foreign Trade Bank, in much the same way that banks have become wary about having ties with financial institutions in sanctions-hit Iran.

China is North Korea’s traditional ally and its biggest trading partner. It is unclear how much of the US$6 billion in annual bilateral trade goes through the Foreign Trade Bank.

Among China’s other large banks, a spokesman at China Construction Bank said the bank did not do any business with the Foreign Trade Bank. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Agricultural Bank of China were not immediately available for comment.

China has become increasingly frustrated with North Korea in recent months. It agreed to new UN sanctions after Pyongyang conducted its third nuclear test in February.

Those sanctions, announced on March 7, target the North’s attempts to ship and receive cargo related to its nuclear and missile programmes and tighten financial curbs, including the illicit transfer of bulk cash.

The UN measures did not address the Foreign Trade Bank. Washington imposed its own sanctions several days later.”

via Bank of China closes account of key North Korean bank | South China Morning Post.

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