Research On The Development Of Mobile Payment In Rural China From The Perspective Of Financial Inclusion

The concept of financial inclusion was imported into China after the concept of inclusive financial system was proposed by the United Nations in 2005. Financial inclusion refers to a process that ensures the ease of access, availability and usage of the formal financial system for all members of an economy. China's financial system has long been in a state of duality, suggesting a great gap of financial development between urban and rural regions. The reasons lie both in the supply end and in the demand end. However, an increasing number of industries have seen the chance of revolution with the rapid development of ICT. As the result of ICT innovation in financial realm, mobile payment has shown an unprecedented potential to overthrow the traditional means of payment. Due to its advantage in making payments at rather low costs and with great swiftness, mobile payment has been adopted in so many counties as a strategic means of driving financial inclusion and promising effects have been witnessed. Despite of the great momentum gained in recent years, mobile payment in China is in its budding period with little recognition from rural people. Hence, this thesis takes a financially inclusive perspective and conducts a detailed research on the development of China's rural mobile payment, on the basis of a thorough review of related literature.Using Transaction Possibility Set and Non-Complete Information Dynamic Game Theory, this thesis examines the mechanism of impact that mobile payment has on rural financial inclusion. Results of the research on the current situation of China's rural mobile payment show that, firstly, preliminary success in financial inclusion has been achieved since the accessibility, affordability and usage of rural financial services have been improved; secondly, mobile payment faces problems driving rural financial inclusion, with rural outreach needing further expansion and security of transaction needing a boost. The following comparative case studies also support these conclusions.Policy proposals on the development of rural mobile payment are made in the end of this thesis. For further popularization in rural regions, mobile payment should take better managerial and technical measures. The construction of mobile payment infrastructure should be embedded into the process of the New Urbanization. Promotional and educational measures should be taken to improve the perceptions of rural residents toward mobile payment. Active exploration should be made to develop the rural agent mode of mobile payment. Efforts should be made to build an industrial environment that keeps great balance between competition and cooperation. And differentiated regulatory policies should be adopted to promote the development of rural mobile payment.