Chinese insurance and financial services provider Ping An Insurance Group's banking division Ping An Bank has revealed plans to issue 2 million credit cards in 2009, up from 1.2 million in 2008, news.alibaba.com reports.

In order to achieve this, the bank is to open two to three new outlets by the end of the year, according to the same source. Ping An Bank has also gained approval as the only bank across China to issue credit cards in cities where it has no outlets. The bank will use telephone sales, online banking and direct sales to launch the new credit cards. The bank has a registered capital of EUR 635.25 million (CNY 5.46 billion) and started to add credit card issuing services in 2007.