ii 中国普惠金融研究院 中国普惠金融研究院 ThePathtoUniversalCoverageofAccountOwnershipinRuralChina Experiences,Policies,andInnovations BoWang|XixiKang|LechiZhang ThisreportiswrittenbystaffmembersoftheChineseAcademyofFinancialInclusion(CAFI)andotherexternalresearchersintheresearchteam.Thisreportisonsubjectsoftopicalinterestandistechnicalincharacter.TheviewsexpressedherearethoseoftheauthorsanddonotnecessarilyreflecttheopinionsofCAFIoritspartners. TheauthorsaregratefulfortheoverallguidanceofDr.DuoguangBeiandDr.XiugenMo.WearealsoindebtedtoHungyueChiang,QinyiGong,AiKe,XuehuiLi,GeTian,SuyunXu,YuanshuaiYang,ChanyuanZhang,andYunzheZhufortheirresearchassistance. WealsoacknowledgethedesignandlayoutsupportfromYiXing,andaspecialthankstoYuehuaWufortheadministrativecoordinationthroughouttheproject. Finally,wesincerelythanktheBillandMelindaGatesFoundationforfundingthisstudy.Theteamgreatlybenefitedfromtheenlighteningdiscussions,generousfeedback,andcontinuoussupportfromtheirstaff,includingDanielRadcliffe,MariaMay,ThaoHong,EzgiUcaner-Flor,andLannaWu.Theirtimedevotedandadvicesharedwasindispensableinshapingthisreport. Allerrorsareourown. ©ChineseAcademyofFinancialInclusion2022.Allrightsreserved.Briefexcerptsmaybereproducedortranslatedprovidedthesourceisstated. 中国普惠金融研究院 Contents Chapter0:AnExecutiveSummary1 BackgroundofStudy1 PurposeandScopeofStudy2 FindingsandConclusions3 Chapter1:China'sFinancialInclusion7 FinancialInclusioninChina7 China'sFinancialInclusionExperiences15 China'sRuralFinance17 Chapter2:HistoryofFirst-AccountOpening20 Chapter2.1:TheUrbanization:1976-200325 Chapter2.2:DirectAgriculturalSubsidies:2004-201030 Chapter2.3:TheSocialSecurityCards:2011–Present33 Chapter3:AcceleratingFinancialInclusion–FintechFirms38 Chapter4:GlobalCases52 REFERENCES101 ANNEX103 Annex1:NotesonGuangxi'sData103 Annex2:PolicyEvolutionFlowchart105 Annex3:PolicyEvolutionofTwoRuralInsuranceSchemes106 Annex4:SocialSecurityCardEvolutionFlowchart107 Annex5:ListofDirectAgriculturalSubsidiesPilotArrangementsin2004108 Annex6:NameListforDirectAgriculturalSubsidiesPilotCountiesin2005109 中国普惠金融研究院 Figures Figure11 Figure22 Figure3:FourStagesofthe“Store-of-ValueTransactionAccount”Development4 Figure48 Figure59 Figure6:Agent-basedServicePoints,PhotoTakeninJinggangshan,JiangxiProvince10 Figure710 Figure811 Figure913 Figure1020 Figure11:MapofBaise,withtwocountiesofTiandongandPingguolabeled21 Figure12:AccountownershipinTiandongandPingguo,samplerestrictedtoarollingcohortaged15+22 Figure1325 Figure1426 Figure15:Sampleof2ndgenerationofSSC,fromPBOC35 Figure16:China’sCitiesandCountiesClassificationPyramid39 Figure1741 Figure18:ApplicationGuidelinesforWeChatPay42 Figure19:TencentOrganizationalChartforFinTech43 Tables Table112 Table2:Non-bankPersonalDigitalAccountFeatures44 Table3:MilestoneChartforWeChatPay45 Table4:ListofSupervisoryPolicies48 中国普惠金融研究院 Chapter0:AnExecutiveSummary ABriefReview BackgroundofStudy AccordingtotheannualChinaPaymentSystemDevelopmentReport1issuedbythePaymentandSettlementDepartment(PSD)ofthePeople'sBankofChina(PBOC),thecumulativenumberofbankcardsissuedinChinaexperiencedaninefoldincreaseduringthelast15years(Figure1).DividingthesecumulativenumbersoftotalbankcardissuancebyChina'sconcurrentyear-endpopulation2,wefindthatasoftheendof2020,theChinese,onaverage,own6.4bankcards.Percapitapossessionofbankcardsseptupledcomparedtothatof2006,backinwhichtheaveragenumberofbankcardsownedwasstilllessthan1. Figure1 Wealsonoticethatbytheendof2020,China'spercapitapossessionofpersonalbankaccountsreached8.83(Figure2)–anumberlargerthanthatofbankcardsbecausebankaccountsaregenerallymorebroadlydefined.During2017–2020,theestimatedannualgrowthrateofpersonalaccountownershipwasabout10percentonaYoYbasis,asstatedin 中国普惠金融研究院 theAnalysisReportontheFinancialInclusionIndicatorsofChina3issuedbytheFinancialConsumerProtectionBureau(FCPB)ofPBOC. Figure2 Bylookingatthesenumbers,itisnodoubtthattoday'sChina,asanupper-middle-incomecountry(UMIC),hasmadesignificantprogressinpromotingfinancialinclusionthroughimprovingaccessibilitytofinancialservices,especiallybyopeninguppersonalbankaccounts. However,onequestionremainsifonescrutinizesthebroaderpicturebehindthesenationwideaveragenumbers.Giventheurban-ruraldivideandthewidelyexistingincomedisparitiesinChina'scityandruralareas,weneedtogobeyondplaindescriptivestatisticsandpayparticularattentiontothelong-tailedgroupsthatoftenendedupbeing"averaged."Forexample,peoplelivinginthecitymayhavemultiplebankaccounts,whileatthesametime,someindividualsinChinacouldremainunbankedgivenitslargepopulationbase. Moreover,individualsthatarestillunbankedtendtoclusterinChina'sruralarea,inwhichnearly40percentofthenation'stotalpopulationpermanentlyresidebytheendof2020.4 PurposeandScopeofStudy Therefore,togetacomprehensiveviewofaccountownershipinChina,wecouldtakeanalternativeperspectiveandadopttheWorldBank'spractices.Wefocusonthepercentageof 中国普惠金融研究院 individualshavingabankaccountwithinaspecificgroup,explorewhatledtoanincreaseinsucharatioovertime,andsummarizethetakeawaysforothercoun