China's cashless economy continues to grow

More transactions went cashless in China in the second quarter, Caixin reports. From April through June, 949.82 trillion yuan ($145.2 trillion) worth of transactions were settled without cash changing hands, up 1.02% from the same period in 2016, the central bank data show. But the volume of cashless payments rose more sharply, up 32.3% from a year ago to 36.90 billion transactions. More than 39.42 trillion yuan was paid via mobile devices in the second quarter, up 33.84% from a year ago, the central bank said. Of that amount, 31.49 trillion yuan was spent using smartphones to scan QR codes to make payments via non-bank channels, or so-called third-party payment service providers. Such third-party payments were up 34.9 % from the same period last year and have seen an explosive growth in China. The central bank’s clearance system settled 2 billion cross-bank online payment transactions in the second quarter, a year-on-year growth of 93.8% year-on-year.