Recently, ICBC held a ceremony in Beijing to issue the first domestic EMV Credit Card. ICBC thus became the first bank in China to fully implement EMV migration. Mr. Zhang Qu, Vice President of ICBC, attended and delivered a speech at the ceremony. Leaders from People's Bank of China, China Banking Supervisory Management Committee, Leadership Office of China Gold Card Project Coordination, China Union Pay, and person in charge from MasterCard International also attended the ceremony.

Mr. Zhang Qu, Vice President of ICBC, stated in his speech that being the largest commercial bank in China, ICBC had always kept its technology and services with world most advanced level. EMV Credit Card launched this time adopted the worldwide-unified standard. It was the first bankcard issued in China adopting such standard. China cardholders can now have a product most advanced, most secure in the world. No more limitations in using the card to spend in China or abroad. Meanwhile, ICBC also completed the EMV receipt acquiring system, so that foreign cardholders can also use EMV IC cards issued by overseas commercial banks on ICBC POS. This movement greatly helped the upgrade and redevelopment of China receipt acquiring, and it is a boost to create a secure, quality bankcard payment environment for numerous business opportunities prospered in the coming 2008 Olympics held in Beijing.

This first EMV credit card that ICBC issued in China is an international dual-currency credit card. RMB and USD accounts are managed together in the card to let cardholders use it to spend in China and other countries in the world. Apart from the magnetic stripe at the back, there is a clip on the face of the card so the card can store more information than ordinary magnetic card. Exist of this clip brings the quality of information security protection and value-added services of credit card to another new height. Number of bogus cards and credit card thefts will be effectively scaled down. Further, large storage also provides an ideal multi-functional application platform for card issuing institutions and merchants to launch additional personalized and value-added services.

The launch of "EMV Standard Peony International Credit Card" further enriches and completes ICBC product category. Higher class, more secure and convenient banking products can be offered to Peony Card holders, which fulfill the all-time commitment that ICBC made to offer high-quality, highly-efficient services to all customers. This is also a new milestone in the development of Peony Card business, and an important measure that ICBC take to speed up the financial innovation and strengthen the business functions in order to better adapt the international finance competition.