Beijing Calls for Increased Use of Mobile Payments During Coronavirus Outbreak

The Chinese central government has issued a call for the increased use of mobile payments methods during efforts to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and the National Health Commission (NHC) just jointly issued the “Notice Concerning Properly Performing Life Services Enterprise Work to Prevent and Control the Spread of the Novel Coronavirus Infectious Pneumonia” (关于做好生活服务企业新型冠状病毒感染肺炎疫情防控工作的通知).

The Notice called for Chinese consumers to make use of swipe card payments and various types of mobile payments methods for settlement purposes during the outbreak of the coronavirus.

Payments giant China UnionPay reported a 46.79% rise in online payments transactions during the Chinese New Year period, with consumers staying inside as a result of concerns over the spread the coronavirus.

Net­sUnion Clear­ing Cor­po­ra­tion – China’s centralised clearing platform for third party payments providers – processed 4.919 bil­lion on­line pay­ments trans­ac­tions dur­ing the va­ca­tion pe­riod from 24 – 30 Jan­u­ary, for an in­crease of 11.25% com­pared to the same pe­riod last year. 

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