China's central bank, the People's Bank of China, issued a document Monday, requiring its branches to blacklist individuals and privately owned business that have issued blank checks in an effort to rectify the country's fledging personal check market.

Spurred by the development of a nationwide personal credit system and the Chinese people's changing consumption habits, the personal check, a popular way of paying bills in western countries, has shown broad prospects in China, said the document.

As checks were mainly used among companies in the past, most Chinese people, except a few in large metropolises, haven't taken up the habit of writing checks yet.

Currently, about 70 percent of payments in one Chinese city is done through checks among companies, as statistics from the bank revealed.

To encourage more Chinese to use personal checks, the central bank has mapped out a series of measures including setting up an inter-regional bill exchange center and a personal check management system.

Apart from checks, other non-cash settlement tools available in China include money orders, cashier's check, credit cards, currency exchange, debit cards and on-line payment.

Source: Xinhua