The China credit market is constantly evolving, especially in tandem with technological advancements that will be accelerated by the rollout of 5G, as well as the impact of COVID-19 that has pushed many businesses to embrace digital transformation faster than the industry could have imagined. At the same time, key markets in top tier cities are approaching saturation, forcing banks to expand their portfolio in new markets. As leading players increasingly face digitally savvy consumers whose profiles are quite different from their existing credit and loan customers, they must overcome the challenge of understanding these new target markets, to find their own competitive advantages and align them with what is important to consumers when choosing credit providers.

This Report explores consumers’ ownership and usage of credit products, credit spending and repayment habits, and their interest in using credit products, to identify where the future opportunities lie for credit card marketers. Mintel also looks at consumers’ awareness of innovative credit concepts and their attitudes toward credit and consumption loan products, especially under the influence of COVID-19, which is expected to persist in the near future.

Major banks usually refer to the six major banks of China with a nationwide presence. They are China Construction Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of Communications and Postal Savings Bank of China.

In a few instances, discussion on major banks includes banks that are increasingly popular and have achieved a respectable commercial scale, eg China Merchant Bank.

Local and regional banks refer to banks that only have a presence in their particular city or region, eg Bank of Chengdu, Bank of Shanghai, etc.

Third-party online financial systems/services refer to non-traditional financial institutions or banks that provide financial services solely online, such as Alipay (Ant Financial), WeChat Pay (WeChat), etc, which also count credit and consumption loans among their products.

For the purpose of this Report, credit consumption mainly refers to consumers borrowing money from banks or other financial service providers to purchase goods and services.

The credit and consumption loan products in this Report are defined as the credit-based products provided by banks, financial institutions, or online financial services platforms, etc.

Credit products refer to credit cards or online credit facilities that are tied to specific purchases, often with instalments, such as Alipay Huabei from Ant Finance, or Baitiao from JD.com, etc. Consumption loan products refer to loans that consumers apply for without any immediate purchase, often not exceeding RMB300,000, such as Alipay Jiebei and WeChat Weilidai.

This Report does not discuss the following loan products in consumer research, although they may be covered in the market discussion where necessary:

• Mortgages

• Car loans

• Corporate loans

• Discounts for bills

• Savings and insurance