Payment by personal cheque across South China's Guangdong Province is expected to start on a trial basis later this year.

The move is part of efforts to increase the different methods of payment and build a national processing centre for such payments.

So said Ma Delun, assistant governor of the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, according to the China Business newspaper.

The processing centre will be one of the key financial infrastructure projects in the country, Ma said.

Preparations are underway for the launch of personal cheque services in Guangdong and details will be issued later, according to PBOC's Guangzhou branch.

A pilot personal cheque service was launched in seven Chinese cities in 1986 but did not flourish for many reasons including weak demand, the traditional habit of paying by cash, worries about fake cheques and payment default.

An unnamed source at a local bank said now was not the best time for the service given the inadequate personal credit system.

A source at the Guangzhou branch of a national shareholding bank said the topic was new and the branch had yet to study it.

Li Yu, an executive of a property developer in Guangzhou, said she did not mind giving cheques a try but had her doubts.

She often uses credit cards but doubted there would be strong demand for personal cheques.

"Will merchants accept a piece of paper with just a few words on it?" she said.

She also complained that even though it has her photograph on, her credit card was sometimes not accepted by shops in Shenzhen, another city in Guangdong.

A national personal credit information system, connecting commercial banks and some rural credit co-operatives, formally began operations in January.

It included basic information and credit records for 486 million Chinese residents at the end of January, according to the PBOC.

The Guangzhou branch of the PBOC said recently the system is doing a lot to minimize the risks of banks in Guangdong in the personal loan business.

Editor: Yan