Its a dramatic shift from the days of Mr Koizumi, and has consequences for international trade and banking given the combined size of these two economies relative to US or Eurozone.

FT.com / Asia-Pacific / China – Japan and China cement relations

The leaders of Japan and China agreed on Wednesday on measures, including annual summit meetings and stepped-up civil and military exchanges, to cement a recent improvement of relations after talks in Tokyo that Japanese officials described as “extremely productive and meaningful”.

Hu Jintao, China’s president, the first head of state to visit Japan in a decade and only the second ever, said: “Prime Minister (Yasuo) Fukuda and I believe that Sino-Japanese relations are at a new historic starting point.”

SURBHI GOEL TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2006 02:31:25 AM]

Standing in a queue, waiting for the teller to give your withdrawal money or moving from one counter to another to deposit cash is a tale of the good old days. Now ‘Your Bank’ has reached you at your fingertip. Core banking systems and e-banking have enabled customers to interact and transact with banks seamlessly. Globally, about 10% of the customers regularly do online banking. In India, less than 1% of the millions of customers are using Internet banking and the trend is catching up, albeit slowly.

Source: Banks on people.connect via Net route- The Economic Times

This is just a dump of useful information for reference.

At present, there are more than 15,000 ATMs in India that give customers the comfort of anytime money. According to sources, the overall IT spend of a bank is around Rs 300-500 crore. “Within the next 10 years, we foresee 15-20% cost saving in transactions because of the advancement and IT adoption,” says Kalyan Sunder, general manager, IT, Bank of India.
He further adds that within 5-6 years, Bank of India would increase its customers from 25 million to 40 million. Though the number of people, using Internet banking may appear to be small yet it holds good potential.
“At present, 1.3 million users are connected through online banking. About 12-13% of our daily transactions are online,” says Pravir Vohra, general manager, IT, ICICI Bank, the largest private sector bank in
the country.

The benefits of IT in banking are going to the villages and small towns as well. As more and more technology is penetrating rural areas, rural banking is taking a new turn. “We have tied-up with BSNL and VSNL to provide better connectivity via phone banking. We also give special Kissan debit cards”, says SK Sharma, deputy general manager, Oriental Bank of Commerce.

There are other services like rural mobile ATMs and kiosks that are helping villagers. Moreover, with the help new tools like biometrics, voice activation and thumb impression technology, banks are optimistic about providing better facilities to farmers. “We are coming up with the concept of smart cards for farmers. We are also in line to devise services that are both offline and online to make the process of e-banking more farmer-friendly,” adds Mr Vohra of ICICI Bank.

And last point, cheque truncation is coming too.

Soon the Reserve Bank of India will come up with the pilot project — Cheque Truncation solution — that would replace paper-based cheque clearing enabling seamless transition to a secure image based cheque clearing system. Get ready for even more tech savvy banking in the coming months.

Technorati Tags: payments

Japan, South Korea lead world in contactless payments : Contactless News

In Japan, FeliCa has created innovative businesses such as Suica (East Japan Railways’ transit card) and Edy (BitWallet’s e-money service), through which credit card and financial services, transportation and mobile service companies have aggressively adopted FeliCa-based smartcard payment solutions.

Furthermore, FeliCa has been installed in mobile handsets, so called ‘Osaifu-Keitai’ and ‘Mobile FeliCa’, allowing them to be used in a wide variety of contexts: as credit card, pre-paid e-money, transit card, and as identification for entrance management.

Japan, South Korea lead world in contactless payments
Thursday, May 25 2006

Due to nationwide implementation programs, Japan and South Korea are leading the word in contactless payment adoption, according to a recent ABI Research report. Innovative programs from FeliCa in Japan and SK Telecom, Visa and MasterCard in South Korea are the reasons why.

Oyster Bay, NY–Japan and South Korea lead the world in adopting contactless payment solutions. Both countries have implemented nationwide services on a commercial scale.

Mobile operators and issuers address a varied range of market opportunities in the region. According to Senior ABI Research analyst Andy Bae, “Small payment transactions are a major goal for Japanese and South Korean credit card companies. To spot new opportunities and increase revenue, mobile operators and card issuers must continually assess their positions in the value chain.”

In Japan, FeliCa has created innovative businesses such as Suica (East Japan Railways’ transit card) and Edy (BitWallet’s e-money service), through which credit card and financial services, transportation and mobile service companies have aggressively adopted FeliCa-based smartcard payment solutions.

Furthermore, FeliCa has been installed in mobile handsets, so called ‘Osaifu-Keitai’ and ‘Mobile FeliCa’, allowing them to be used in a wide variety of contexts: as credit card, pre-paid e-money, transit card, and as identification for entrance management.

For users, the major incentive to adopt a contactless payment service is easy, convenient transactions. Merchants can expect to enhance the customer relationship by offering “point” and “coupon” benefits, and by delivering product item information over the air.

The maturity of contactless payment solutions in Japan is closely related to the activities of East Japan Railways. The company has a nationwide infrastructure, and there are stations within which users can access entire facilities simply by waving the card. Using East Japan Railways’ resources, Suica has enlarged the range of services beyond simple transit, to involve the merchant communities in the station and its vicinity.

In South Korea, mobile operators SK Telecom and KTF will introduce USIM (Universal Subscriber Identification Module) to offer an integrated mobile card solution that includes banking, transit, stock transaction, and contactless payment via 13.56 MHz. Andy Bae notes, “With a high adoption rate in the mobile handset, South Korean users will have an integrated smartcard solution in their mobile devices.”

In addition, contactless payment solutions from Visa Wave and MasterCard PayPass have operated successfully in South Korean retail environments since 1Q 2006.

Contactless Payment Markets in Japan and South Korea examines business models, tracks merchant uptakes, and gauges card issuers’ and consumers’ expectations in both markets. The report includes forecasts of shipments and revenues for chip, reader, and contactless payment solution-enabled devices to 2012. It forms part of ABI Research’s subscription Contactless Commerce Research Service, which includes research reports, regular market updates, forecast and industry databases, ABI Insights, and analyst inquiry time.

Founded in 1990 and headquartered in New York, ABI Research maintains global operations that support annual research programs, intelligence services and market reports in wireless, automotive, semiconductors, broadband, and energy. For more information please visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.

Technorati Tags: chip+card, smart+card, wireless,

Finextra: Global electronic payment volumes to double by 2010

The annual number of electronic payment transactions, currently at approximately 210 billion worldwide, are expected to double by the end of the decade, according to research released by ACI Worldwide.

The individual markets of different growth profiles:

The Eastern Europe and Asia/Pacific regions are forecast to lead the world in electronic payment transaction growth, predicted at 21.6% and 19.2% respectively, for the period of 2004 to 2009.Other regions including the Middle East, are forecast to increase 15.9% and NAFTA (North American Free Trade Alliance) expected to grow 12.3%.

During the five-year period from 2004 to 2009, forecast volumes are expected to double across the world, with China and India doubling more quickly at a rate of every three and four years, respectively. 

Relevance to Bankwatch: Background for development of payments strategy.ACIStudy.pdf

Technorati Tags: payments bankwatch_relevance_strategy

City's bank card system collapses

SHANGHAI'S major department stores, restaurants and some automatic teller machines failed to accept bank cards since noon today because of a network breakdown at China Unionpay, the country's integrated system for bank cards transactions.

While the card base is enormous, the ATM base is smaller than I'd expect.

China has issued more than 920 million bank cards, including debit
cards and credit cards since the end of last year, up 142 percent from
2002, the year when China Unionpay was set up.There are 86,000 automatic teller machines and 406,000 point of sales machines in the country so far.

Technorati Tags: debit_card, china