| Written by Miranda Chen,
on June 04, 2008
|
On May 27, the Bank of East Asia (BEA) has become the first foreign bank to issue debit cards in China. BEA's three types of China Unionpay-compliant debit cards are the Bauhinia Card, SupremeGold Card and SupremeGold Platinum Card. The minimum deposit amount to open an account is 5,000 RMB for the Bauhinia Card, 500,000 RMB for SupremeGold, and 2 million RMB for SupremeGold Platinum. Previously, the lowest initial deposit amount for foreign banks was 100,000 RMB. Despite the lower threshold, BEA's debit card accounts will still target wealthier users. (In comparison, one can open an account at a domestic bank for as little as 10 RMB.)
BEA is promoting its cards aggressively, but the company is limited to no more than one million of the debit card accounts in 2008. Given such a small limit, I believe that BEA simply hopes to use the cards to expand its presence in China. As restrictions on foreign banks (presumably) continue to be relaxed in the coming years, BEA would be well positioned to offer a wider range of services to a much greater number of customers.
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