The Industrial and Commercial Bankof China (ICBC) said Friday in Beijing that it has become China's largest E-commerce online payment service provider.

Its online payment surpassed 5 billion yuan (about 600 million US dollars) at the end of November, said a spokesman with ICBC, one of China's largest commercial banks. The number of its online personal clients exceeded 10 million and online corporate clients 110,000 at the end of November.

"It shows China has broken the bottleneck of online payment in the development of its E-commerce," an analyst said. "With the continuous growth of the Internet popularity and the improvement of the credit rating and logistics systems, China's E-commerce is sure to enter a new period for fast growth."

An ICBC official said here that the bank would continue to cooperate with E-commerce businesses and provide to them advanced online payment and other financial services.

In a related development, ICBC retooled its cellular phone-based mobile banking business in October. After the renovation, its clients are able to conduct account management and payment using their mobile phones.

The electronic banking is a sector that will experience fierce competition between Chinese and foreign banks, analysts say, adding that foreign banks, which do not have as many banking outlets as their Chinese counterparts, will seek fast business expansion on the Internet.

Source: Xinhua