Sixteen banks and the China Financial Certification Association are working together on anti-fraud mechanisms to improve security for online banking customers.
The banks involved are Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications, CITIC Bank, China Everbright Bank, Huaxia Bank, China Minsheng Bank, China Merchants Bank, Guangdong Development Bank, Shenzhen Development Bank, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, Indusrial Bank, Beijing City Commercial Bank, Nanjing Bank, and Tianjin Bank.
They have agreed to create and share an online banking 'blacklist', and to cooperate on any investigations of fraudulent activity. They also propose working together to monitor the latest security technology developments and will organise seminars and forums to share information.
Online banking has been available to individual customers in China since 2002.
The Xinhua News Agency in December reported that the number of internet users in China had reached 132 million, and 40 million of those used online banking. But also in December it reported an online banking survey that found over 60% of the 40 million online banking Chinese have no confidence in the security of their transactions.