OREANDA-NEWS. December 25, 2013. Mr. Chen, a clothing wholesaler in Guangdong Province, has been a fan of ICBC’s mobile number remittance since he used the function for the first time two years ago. "Dozens of clothing shop owners across the country may pay for goods by only entering my mobile number, without requiring my bank A/C No. It’s real safe and convenient," said Mr. Chen.

Ms. Zhang from Heilongjiang Province shares the same feeling. In the past, she had to carefully enter and verify her son's A/C No. and name when remitting living allowance to him. "Now, I simply need to enter his mobile No. simple. No more worries!"

The so-called mobile phone remittance is ICBC’s innovative product. Plain as it is, the application has been well received by customers since launched in the second half of 2008. Trading volume and number of remittance surge year by year. In the first ten months of 2013 alone, mobile number based remittance has reached 21.58 million times, representing a year-on-year growth of over 2.3 times. In the year from October 2012 to October 2013, the number amounted to 24.08 million with a volume of RMB 31.6 billion.

As banks are vying to turn financial service electronic, ICBC has been pursuing the goal of providing more reliable and convenient service through innovative trading model and streamlined business procedures, said an ICBC official. Traditionally, remitters need to know the receiver's name and A/C number. But such information may be forgotten. It is the insignificant demand that drove ICBC to develop the innovative mobile phone based remittance . The remitter only needs to enter the receiver's mobile number and name as long as the receiver binds his/her ICBC A/C with the mobile number. The amount will be automatically transferred into receiver's account. In this way, the receiver may avoid sharing the banking information. And the remitter is relieved from fears over entering wrong A/C number, making the service user-friendly, individualized and convenient.