BANK OF CHINA's credit card division has announced the impending closure of its dedicated "Colorful Life" credit card application. All related functions and services have been fully migrated to the main BANK OF CHINA App.
Industry analysts view this move not as an isolated decision by a single institution but as a significant indicator of broader industry trends. According to Wang Pengbo, Chief Analyst of the Financial Industry at Bocom Consulting, user habits are increasingly centralizing, with the public no longer accepting the operational model of switching between multiple applications from the same bank. A unified entry point better aligns with daily financial service needs.
Specifically, the "Colorful Life" App will cease all services at 24:00 on June 30, 2026. After this date, the app will be inaccessible for login, inquiries, or transaction processing. BANK OF CHINA had previously promoted "Colorful Life" as its dedicated credit card client. In 2022, a "Colorful Life" App (UnionPay QuickPass Edition) was also launched.
This shutdown is not abrupt. In September 2025, BANK OF CHINA's credit card division disclosed that it had initiated the service migration process, with all functions of "Colorful Life" gradually moving to the "BANK OF CHINA" App. Upon completion, the "Colorful Life" App would stop downloads and registrations before being phased out. The bank stated the specific timeline would be announced later. In January 2026, the division further announced that new user registrations for "Colorful Life" would be suspended from March 31, followed by a gradual termination of all services. The app will be removed from major mobile application markets, including the Apple App Store and official Android stores.
Attempts to search for the app in mobile stores now yield prompts indicating that "Colorful Life" functions have been migrated to the BANK OF CHINA App, while searches for apps like "Postal Savings Credit Card" still show results.
Wang Pengbo emphasized that this decision by BANK OF CHINA is emblematic of an industry trend. He analyzed that the credit card industry has entered a stage of managing existing customers, with growth in new card issuance slowing and user expansion stagnating. The previous operational model of using multiple apps to spread traffic across channels is no longer suitable. Furthermore, regulatory bodies continue to guide financial institutions to streamline their mobile application ecosystems, reducing redundant ports with overlapping functions and low activity. Banks' own digital architecture requires unification, as issues like repeated maintenance investments, fragmented traffic, and operational inefficiencies from separate clients are becoming increasingly apparent. The convergence of these factors suggests that the integration and simplification of credit card apps will become a widely followed industry trend.
Other banks have made similar adjustments. For instance, in December 2025, Postal Savings Bank of China announced it would adjust its credit card online channel services, gradually integrating credit card functions into the "Postal Savings Bank App." Upon integration, the "Postal Savings Credit Card App" will be discontinued. Earlier, in November 2024, Beijing Rural Commercial Bank announced that its "Phoenix Credit Card" App functions would migrate to the "Beijing Rural Commercial Bank Mobile Banking" App, with the former shutting down on March 31, 2025.
This trend is supported by policy. In September 2024, the National Financial Regulatory Administration issued a notice on strengthening the management of mobile internet applications in the banking and insurance sectors, requiring financial institutions to optimize, integrate, or terminate operations of mobile apps with low user activity, poor experience, redundant functions, or significant security and compliance risks.
What signals does the shutdown of dedicated credit card apps release? Wang Pengbo explained that from an operational perspective, maintaining a separate credit card app incurs ongoing costs for technical iteration, server maintenance, and human resources. Multiple clients fragment traffic, hindering banks' ability to create unified user profiles and conduct deep value mining from existing customers. From a user perspective, financial habits are centralizing; a single entry point is more convenient than switching between apps from the same bank. From a business perspective, integrating credit, wealth management, and lifestyle benefits within a main app allows for interconnected scenarios and ecosystem synergy, whereas an independent client severs these collaborative links.
Wang Pengbo predicts that various banks will increasingly move towards fully integrating dedicated credit card functions into their main mobile banking apps, phasing out independently operated credit card ports.
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