As national guidelines on improving payment services were released recently, Bank of China (BOC) has responded by increasing the number of merchants accepting overseas bank cards, ensuring the availability of cash withdrawals and foreign currency exchange, providing digital renminbi and QR code payments, and facilitating the opening of bank accounts by foreigners. BOC, as a large state-owned commercial bank, hopes to provide better services for overseas visitors and the elderly. With the increase of China’s visa-free travel policy, payment difficulties faced by foreign visitors to China are receiving more attention. To address them, BOC has improved measures in five areas: domestic services for overseas bank cards; cash exchange; QR code payments; domestic account opening and the use of the digital RMB.
BOC is committed to breaking down cross-border payment barriers and providing payment guidance to overseas visitors at the earliest opportunity. With airports the first stop for overseas visitors, a service center at Xian Xianyang International Airport was officially launched in late March. It was established by BOC’s Shaanxi branch and provides professional services such as foreign language payment consultation, foreign currency exchange and ATM cash withdrawals, and also registration and card binding for mobile payment software. A Pakistani tourist at the airport thanked the BOC staff for helping him bind a debit card to an app for quick payment. In the past, he had to prepare cash but now he can pay taxi fares and do shopping using only his smartphone.
BOC has made efforts to provide diversified and convenient payment services for overseas visitors to China. It has increased the acceptance of overseas cards, expanded cash services, optimized foreign currency exchange and the opening of accounts, and set up a multilevel payment system involving card payments, QR code scanning and cash as a backup. BOC’s branches offer exchange services for 38 currencies, allowing customers to exchange small amounts of foreign currency with a passport or other valid identification without the need to open an account. It has installed self-service foreign currency exchange machines at airports, ports and hotels that support the exchange of 20 currencies and authorized more than 1,500 hotels and airport exchange points to provide foreign currency exchange services.
The bank has also developed a WeChat mini program called “BOC Compass” with multilingual support, providing detailed answers to financial questions. This includes financial guides, exchange rates and departure tax refunds. BOC supports customers from countries and regions such as Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Canada and Cambodia to use the local BOC application for QR code payments at domestic China UnionPay merchants. Foreign individuals can also bind their overseas bank cards or domestic bank cards issued by BOC to WeChat and Alipay for domestic QR code payments and in-app payments.
Although mobile payments have developed rapidly and brought convenient and efficient payments, some elderly people still prefer to use cash. As such, they face challenges like the “digital divide” and “payment barriers”. BOC has taken measures to address the difficulties in payment services for the elderly. The bank has piloted “mini wallets” with banknotes of CNY10, CNY5 and CNY1, to offer seniors more convenience for small payments. It has increased the distribution of “mini wallets” at key locations such as exchange points and public transportation hubs. More than 1.07 million “mini wallets” were issued by June 15, including more than 410,000 across 17 key cities, the China Daily reports.
