IMGCAP(1)]
Chinese rural laborers who moved to bigger cities for work spent 5.7 billion yuan (US$833.9 million or 649.2 million euros) with UnionPay-branded debit cards during the first nine months of this year, already 170% more than the 2.11 billion yuan spent with UnionPay-branded debit cards during all of 2007, China UnionPay says. Rural laborers from five provinces–Henan, Hunan, Guangxi, Guizhou and Sichuan–accounted for the most spending so far this year, 3.2 billion yuan, or 56% of the total. "Rural laborers can withdraw or make balance inquiries at rural credit cooperatives and post office savings banks with their cards, as long as [the laborers] have a bank account," a UnionPay spokesperson tells CardLine Global. "The bankcard service for rural laborers [is] accepted by more than 60,000 country credit cooperatives and post office savings banks in China." At least 15 national commercial banks provide bankcard services designed for rural labors, UnionPay says. "The service avoids the risk of (laborers) carrying a large amount of cash on their way home," the spokesperson adds.
