The Overview Of UnionPay

Established in March 2002, UnionPay is a bankcard association established under the approval of the State Council and the People’s Bank of China. At present, the Shanghai-headquartered UnionPay has about 400 domestic and overseas associate members.

UnionPay has become the central and pivotal part of China’s bankcard industry, and plays an essential role in the industry development. As the bankcard association in China, UnionPay operates an inter-bank transaction settlement system through which the connection and switch between banking systems and the inter-bank, cross-region and cross-border usages of bankcards issued by associate banks could be realized. Based on the system construction and operation as well as the bankcard network, UnionPay actively collaborate with various industrial parties like commercial banks in the efforts to formulate and extend united UnionPay card standards and regulations, create independent bankcard brand, promote the development and application of bankcard, maintain an orderly bankcard acceptance market and prevent bankcard risks.

In order to meet the growing demand for card use of the Chinese in overseas business, travel and study, and to extend the services of domestic commercial banks abroad via UnionPay network, UnionPay is dedicated to the construction of an international acceptance network. As of today, UnionPay cards have been accepted in 117 countries and regions outside China. Meanwhile, UnionPay also actively promotes issuance of UnionPay standard cards overseas, with a goal of providing payment convenience for foreigners in their work, travel and study in China. At present, 65 institutions in 17 overseas countries and regions have issued UnionPay card locally, with an accumulated card issuance volume of more than 10 million pieces.UnionPay cards are not only well accepted by the domestic cardholders, but also highly appreciated by cardholders in more and more countries and regions.

UnionPay strives to promote various bankcard-based innovative payment businesses to meet the increasingly diversified requirements for card use. Cardholders can not only use bankcards at ATMs and merchant POS terminals, but also pay utility bills, book air tickets and hotels, repay credit cards and transfer money, among others, via various emerging channels like Internet, mobile phone, fixed telephone, self-service terminal and digital TV. Under the joint efforts of UnionPay , commercial banks and other relevant institutions, a bankcard acceptance environment with broader scope, more fields and more channels is taking shape. It will meet the diversified requirements for card use of the Chinese people.

The Chinese government has paid close attention to UnionPay since its establishment. On January 16th, 2010, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, State President and CMC Chairman Hu Jintao made a special trip to visit UnionPay during his inspection tour in Shanghai, praising that UnionPay card independently developed by UnionPay promoted the development of bankcard industry and brought convenience to the mass people in our country, pointing out that bankcard industry was a promising industry and encouraging us to constantly expand our business fields, improve our service level, accelerate our internationalization process, and strive to establish “UnionPay” as one major bankcard brand worldwide. Premier Wen Jiabao has paid two visits to UnionPay. In his visit to UnionPay in May 2007, Premier Wen Jiabao highly appreciated the achievements obtained by UnionPay in the promotion of netted utilization, the construction of independent brand, the process of UnionPay internationalization and the innovation of bankcard payment. Premier Wen Jiabao also proposed the guidelines for the bankcard work under new circumstance: safety, unification, innovation and popularization.