BEIJING -- Chinese banks will promote the use of chip cards and phase out magcards for security concerns.

Being more secure and convenient, chip cards, as an upgrade of magnetic ones, have become the majority of newly-issued bank cards in the country since being introduced in 2011, according to the People's Bank of China.

The PBoC has required that commercial banks upgrade their banking systems and widen the use of chip cards. It also demanded that since 2015, the newly-issued bank cards with yuan-denominated clearing accounts should be chip ones in economically-developed areas.

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