UnionPay International offers borderless payment acceptance to global cardholders

By Gloria Mathias

UnionPay International has integrated 170 international wallets to be directly used at merchant PoS that accept UnionPay in China, offering a borderless payment experience for global cardholders.

This new change brought by UPI’s rapid expansion of its cross-border business massively enhances the payment experience for global travellers on China’s mainland.

Hong Kong and Macao SAR residents can now use familiar options like the UnionPay App, Octopus card, and BoC Pay. Other international wallets, including Malaysia’s GoPayz, Thailand’s K PLUS, and South Korea’s NaverPay, allow travellers to scan UnionPay QR codes for payments. Southeast Asian payment networks like Malaysia’s PayNet, Vietnam’s NAPAS, and Cambodia’s Bakong have all reached agreements with UnionPay.

UPI’s new “network interconnection and interoperability” cooperation model is another step in UPI’s constant innovation. It actively promotes the interconnection between payment networks in China and internationally while supporting the coordinated development of domestic and international payment products.

UPI’s latest innovation offers five significant advantages that include, a seamless connection, no additional costs, better privacy protection, customer risk identification that ensures safer cross-border transactions, as well as a wide range of application scenarios.

Taking transportation for instance, cross-border transportation such as the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and the China-Laos Railway along with 40 urban subways and more than 1,760 urban buses in the region all support UnionPay cardholders.

In recent years, the digital transformation of the global payment industry has been accelerating with Chinese payment financial institutions represented by UnionPay actively creating a smooth and interconnected global payment network. UPI cooperates with international banks and payment companies to support wallets to bind UnionPay cards or issue UnionPay virtual cards within the app.

170 of the wallet products have been launched in 35 countries and regions, and it is expected that the number will exceed 200 by the end of the year. UPI also cooperates on transit network technology standards, QR code standards, and chip card standards with many central banks, national transit networks, and payment alliances around the world.