JCB International, the international subsidiary of JCB Co. Ltd., has signed a deal with China Construction Bank to issue JCB credit cards in China, the Japan-based card firm announced Friday.
China Construction is accepting applications for its “Transformers” credit cards, JCB says. The card design features the Transformer robot toys popular in Japan and China.
This is not the first time a Chinese bank is issuing cards featuring toy or cartoon characters. JCB last year signed a deal with China’s Ping An Bank Co. Ltd. to issue JCB credit cards.
The cards feature a "bear-shaped, block-type figure" called Bearbrick that a Japanese toy company owns. In 2008, China Merchants Bank began issuing credit cards with representations of "Astro Boy," a robot featured in a 1960s Japanese animated TV series that still enjoys popularity in Japan. That bank also issues cards featuring Hello Kitty, another Japanese cartoon character, along with the animated Tom and Jerry cat-and-mouse duo from the United States.
JCB has card partnerships with Bank of China, Bank of Shanghai, China Everbright Bank, China Merchants Bank, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, China Minsheng Banking Corp., Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and Ping An Bank. JCB says it has 2.5 million cardholders in China.
