The credit card market is shifting from a phase of rapid expansion to an era of intensive cultivation within a saturated competitive landscape. On May 13, BANK OF CHINA's credit card division announced that its "Colorful Life" App will cease all services from 24:00 on June 30, 2026. All related functions have been fully migrated to the "BANK OF CHINA" App. This appears to be the first credit card app from a major state-owned bank slated for closure. In the announcement, BANK OF CHINA stated that to further integrate service resources and optimize the online financial service experience, it is upgrading its mobile financial service channels. The "Colorful Life" App will completely stop service on June 30, 2026. After that, the app will no longer be accessible for login, inquiries, or transaction processing. The shutdown of BANK OF CHINA's credit card app is just one sign of the times. Other institutions, including Postal Savings Bank of China and several small and medium-sized banks, have previously announced plans to phase out their standalone credit card apps.
Multiple Banks Announce Plans to Close Credit Card Apps BANK OF CHINA indicated that to ensure uninterrupted credit card services for customers, all functions and services from the original "Colorful Life" App have been fully transferred to the "BANK OF CHINA" App, and it advised customers to download and register as soon as possible. Public information shows that the Colorful Life App was BANK OF CHINA's official credit card client, providing basic credit card services, mobile payment, points and installment mall services, merchant discounts, and event information, catering to users' lifestyle and consumption scenarios. This official app was launched approximately 13 years ago. Besides BANK OF CHINA, other major state-owned banks have also scaled back their credit card operations. For instance, late last year, Postal Savings Bank of China issued an "Announcement on Adjusting Online Channel Services for Credit Cards," stating that, based on business development needs, it would adjust online credit card services and progressively integrate credit card functions into the "PSBC Mobile Banking" App. Upon completion of this integration, the "PSBC Credit Card App" will be discontinued. However, customer credit card services will not be affected and can continue via channels like mobile banking. As of now, PSBC has not announced an official shutdown date for its credit card app. Beyond the major state-owned banks, consolidation among small and medium-sized banks has been more frequent. According to incomplete statistics, since last year, ten institutions including Bank of Jiangxi, Beijing Rural Commercial Bank, Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank, Sichuan Rural Credit Union, and China Resources Bank have either shut down their credit card apps or merged them into their primary mobile banking platforms. Looking further back, credit card apps from institutions such as Bohai Bank, China Zheshang Bank, Hengfeng Bank, and Bank of Ningbo were successively discontinued during 2024. Several industry insiders believe the concentrated closure of credit card apps is not coincidental but an inevitable outcome of multiple converging factors. From a business environment perspective, the credit card industry has transitioned from high-speed expansion to a stage of competition for existing customers. A credit card department head at a joint-stock bank noted that in recent years, the growth rate of new credit card issuance has slowed, with some banks even seeing a decline in card numbers. The proportion of credit cards within banks' overall credit structures has also decreased. Against this backdrop, the business scale and value carried by standalone credit card apps can no longer justify their high operational costs. From the viewpoint of Xue Hongyan, a special researcher at Sushang Bank, credit card apps have relatively singular functions that heavily overlap with those of the main banking app, leading to a continuous decline in their marginal value as independent entities. Furthermore, apps like direct banking and credit card apps were largely born during the internet traffic红利期. Now, with insufficient user activity and severe homogenization, integration has become a practical choice for improving efficiency. "Behind every independent app lies an entire set of R&D, testing, operation, maintenance, and security systems," said Lou Feipeng, a researcher at Postal Savings Bank of China. When multiple apps have overlapping functions and scattered users, the issue of resource consumption becomes particularly pronounced. Consolidation can help reduce related cost expenditures.
Multiple Banks Streamline Credit Card Product Lines The trend of integrating credit card apps is essentially an inevitable result of the banking industry's shift from the initial "land grab" phase to a stage of "intensive cultivation" within a存量竞争 environment. A research report from Industrial Research pointed out that in recent years, amid the wave of digital transformation, mobile banking has evolved from a mere "functional platform" to the core hub and comprehensive service platform for commercial banks' online operations. As the user base for mobile banking approaches saturation, its development is entering a "deep-water zone." From a strategic layout perspective, digital transformation for banks in this "deep-water zone" is no longer about optimizing single functions but involves a systemic reshaping of capabilities around intelligence, customer segmentation, and ecosystem development. Additionally, strengthened regulation is a contributing factor. In September 2024, the National Financial Regulatory Administration issued a "Notice on Strengthening the Management of Mobile Internet Applications in the Banking and Insurance Industries." It explicitly stated that financial institutions should enhance the overall management of mobile applications, establish application inventories, improve准入退出 mechanisms, coordinate mobile application construction plans across departments and branches, and reasonably control the number of mobile applications. Applications with low user activity, poor experience, redundant functions, or significant security and compliance risks should be promptly optimized, integrated, or terminated. Prior to shutting down credit card apps, banks had already begun "streamlining" their credit card offerings. Earlier this year, several banks including Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of Communications, China Minsheng Bank, and China Guangfa Bank announced they would stop issuing certain credit card products. Previously popular co-branded cards and themed cards became key targets for adjustment, indicating a clear industry-wide "slimming down" trend. Among them, China Minsheng Bank discontinued 11 credit card products at once; Agricultural Bank of China also issued multiple related停发 announcements within the year. Regarding the reasons for these product discontinuations, several banks mentioned factors like "business adjustments" and "contract agreements expiring" in their announcements. Beyond discontinuing certain credit card products, several banks have also closed分中心 for their credit card centers in multiple locations. For example, in January of this year, branches of Guangzhou Bank's Credit Card Center in Zhuhai, Dongguan, Foshan, Huizhou, Zhongshan, Shenzhen, and Jiangmen were approved for termination. The Chengdu and other branches of Bank of Communications' Pacific Credit Card Center have also ceased operations. According to the "Overall Operation of the Payment System in 2025" released by the People's Bank of China, by the end of 2025, the number of credit cards and combination debit-credit cards nationwide was 696 million. This represents a decrease of approximately 31 million from the end of 2024 and a reduction of 111 million from the historical peak in the third quarter of 2022, marking a new low in recent years.
Comments