- UnionPay steps up its issuance business overseas to support personnel 
exchanges between China and the rest of the world 

On December 5, UnionPay International and 8 mainstream institutions in 5 Asia 
Pacific countries and regions held a collective card issuing agreement signing 
and business launching ceremony in Shanghai during its joint meeting of its 
Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia and South Pacific Regional Member Councils. Shao 
Fujun, Chairman of China UnionPay, and Cai Jianbo, Chariman of UnionPay 
International attended the ceremony, and Li Xiaofeng, CEO of UnionPay 
International signed agreements with heads of partner institutions.

The partner institutions in concern include BOC Credit Card (International) 
Limited, Bank of China Macau Branch, PAObank, Bangkok Bank, KBank, Trade and 
Development Bank of Mongolia, and Wooricard of South Korea, etc. The 
partnerships cover the issuance of multiple physical card products, digital 
card and card product promotion, marking the newest progress in the 
localization of UnionPay business in APAC.

The localization of UnionPay International business is entering a new stage, 
under which background a total of about 130 million UnionPay cards have been 
issued in 57 countries and regions outside mainland China relying on the 
acceptance network covering 177 countries and regions. Since this year, the 
number of transactions made with these UnionPay cards has increased by about 
40%, and UnionPay cards have been widely used in mainland China. Last year, 
about 18 million UnionPay cards were issued in the Asia-Pacific region, the 
main area where UnionPay cards were issued, accounting for about 30% of the 
total bankcards newly issued in 2018 in the region.

Shao Fuqjun said in his greeting remarks, "with the rapid development of 
financial technologies, the global payments industry is undergoing fundamental 
changes: becoming more and more convenient, open and orderly." The Member 
Councils of UnionPay International is a significant platform for UPI to 
communicate with its members, and UnionPay also expects the Councils to be a 
platform for deeper collaboration in system building, technical standards, 
acceptance and issuance, mobile payments, supporting services and payments 
digitalization among stakeholders in the industry. UnionPay is willing to seize 
the opportunities together with its partners to provide better payment services 
to customers.

According to the agreements signed on this event, BOC Credit Card 
(International) Limited will issue UnionPay credit cards whose holders will be 
allowed to enjoy UnionPay mobile payment services; Bank of China Macau Branch 
will carry out UnionPay card product promotion activities to attract 
cardholders to use UnionPay cards in their purchases; and PAObank will be the 
first virtual bank in cooperation with UnionPay International to issue UnionPay 
virtual debit cards to consumers in Hong Kong. Besides, Bangkok Bank, the 
largest commercial bank in Thailand, will issue in large scale TPN-UnionPay 
dual-label debit cards in Thailand, and KBank, the second largest bank in 
Thailand, will issue UnionPay credit cards, which is the first-time large-scale 
issuance of UnionPay credit card in Thailand.

At the ceremony, Trade and Development Bank of Mongolia issued the UnionPay 
Diamond Credit card first ever in Mongolia, and Wooricard of South Korea issued 
K-CHECK UnionPay debit cards, which is the first local UnionPay card product 
issued particularly for foreigners in South Korea.

UnionPay card is one of the major payment options for consumers in many 
countries and regions outside mainland China. Among the aforementioned markets, 
UnionPay is the largest card scheme in terms of issuance in Mongolia; UnionPay 
cards have been issued in all 10 member states of ASEAN; UnionPay accounts for 
over 90% of debit cards in circulation in Hong Kong and 50% of the local 
newly-issued credit cards; 95% of debit cards in circulation in Macau are 
UnionPay cards; and in terms of the number of cards issued, an average of 4 out 
of 5 people in South Korea have a UnionPay card.

In recent years, UnionPay International have set up Regional Member Councils in 
key regions, aiming to build open platforms for cooperation among members. This 
joint meeting of Regional Councils is attended by representatives from over 40 
members from 19 markets including Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, 
Thailand, Nepal and Australia, etc.

SOURCE: UnionPay International