People’s Bank of China (PBOC), on October 19, 2012, have said that China will soon issue a national mobile payment standard. The officials said that the payment standard will be issued by the end of the year, and is also likely to conduct mobile payment trials in Chengdu and Ningbo.
Li Xiaofeng, who is the director of the IC card office of the PBOC, has said that the national payment standard was approved by the China Financial Standardization Technical Committee on October 16, 2012. A report in the Oriental Morning Post said that the committee will be sending documents to the relevant authorities for further approval.
Le also informed that China will adopt the 13.56 MHz mobile payment standard which is developed by UnionPay as its major mobile payment standard. According to reports, in some of the Urban public transportation sectors the homegrown 2.4 Ghz technology might also be used. Xu Luode, the chairman of UnionPay in the month of August, 2012 said that the 13.56 Mhz technology has got the final approval from Chinese authorities.
If the decision is made, then China will eventually settle the long pending issue of a nationwide mobile payment standard. The China technical Committee, on its website said that the set up of the nationwide standard will help to promote and regulate the financial mobile payments of industries in China.
