The e-bank turnover of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) grew 22 percent year on year to 46.7 trillion yuan (US$5.8 trillion) in 2005, bank sources said Tuesday.

 

The ICBC, -- assets-wise, China's largest bank-- said its market share of e-bank turnover was still the biggest among all Chinese banks.

 

The rapid development of e-banking has greatly reduced the pressure on counter services, and one fourth of the ICBC's clients no longer need to go to bank counters, it said.

 

In 2005, the total turnover through ICBC's ATMs (Automatic Teller Machines) was 532.6 billion yuan, and that through POS (Point Of Sells) was 515 billion yuan. The turnover through on-line ICBC, however, was higher in 2005, standing at 610.8 billion yuan.

 

In 2005, ICBC witnessed its individual and corporate on-line banking clients increase by 5.1 million and 207,500 respectively, it said.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 11, 2006)