Looking back on 2024, with the continuous release of favorable policies such as visa exemption, the inbound and outbound tourism market will show a steady and orderly recovery trend. As an important national financial infrastructure and a leading international bank card brand, UnionPay actively implements the concept of "payment for the people", provides payment guarantee for two-way exchanges between Chinese people "going out" and foreigners "coming in", and helps expand the breadth and scope of opening up to the outside world. depth.
At the end of 2024, UnionPay International announced that Indonesia would issue the UnionPay Splendid China Card for the first time. So far, UnionPay cards have been widely accepted in 183 countries and regions around the world, of which the number of overseas online and offline merchants has exceeded 70 million. UnionPay cards have been issued on a large scale in 84 countries and regions, of which more than 260 million have been issued overseas.
Practice "payment for the people" to meet diverse cross-border needs
In 2024, China's outbound tourism market will gain new vitality, with the number of outbound tourists exceeding 100 million throughout the year. In line with this trend, UnionPay has further optimized the construction of its global acceptance network to provide payment protection with wider coverage and better experience for Chinese people traveling abroad.
At present, more than 70 million merchants in 182 countries and regions overseas have supported UnionPay payment products, widely covering popular consumption scenarios for outbound travel such as “food, housing, transportation, travel, shopping, and entertainment”. In order to better meet the mobile payment needs of Chinese people, UnionPay continues to expand its overseas mobile payment acceptance network. 101 overseas countries and regions already support UnionPay QR codes or mobile QuickPass. Taking the transportation scene as an example, in 2024, some new transportation operators in Hong Kong, Japan, Spain, Italy, etc. will be able to implement the function of "taking a card to take a ride", further consolidating UnionPay's acceptance advantage in this scene.
In recent years, in order to provide better payment services to outbound cardholders, UnionPay has continued to expand the scope of partners and reached cooperation with tourism bureaus of many countries to jointly improve the payment experience of visiting UnionPay cardholders. In 2024, the tourism bureaus of five countries including Australia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Thailand will join UnionPay’s “circle of friends”.
Those with a “big country” in mind will support high-level opening up to the outside world.
With the development of the “One Belt and One Road” initiative, China-Africa’s “Ten Partnership Initiatives”, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area plan, UnionPay takes its responsibility as a “national team” of financial infrastructure and strives to serve the national strategy through high-quality financial payments.
At present, nearly 90% of the areas jointly building the “Belt and Road” have opened UnionPay card business, covering more than 27 million merchants. One-third of the markets in the region have issued UnionPay cards, with a total of nearly 200 million cards issued. In the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, UnionPay cards have grown into the bank card brand with the largest coverage and issuance scale in the region. On the African continent, UnionPay cards are now available in 51 countries and regions, of which 13 countries and regions have issued 5 million UnionPay cards.
In recent years, the China International Investment Fair, the Fair for Trade in Services, and the China International Import Expo... as China's door opens wider and wider, UnionPay has also appeared in more and more large-scale exhibitions. While ensuring the cross-border payment experience for people, it also provides All parties provide safe and convenient comprehensive payment solutions. During the Seventh China International Import Expo, UnionPay, with the guidance and support of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce and relevant regulatory authorities, launched a digital payment solution based on international electronic invoice standards, providing high-quality digital trade in Shanghai’s “Silk Road E-commerce Demonstration Zone” Inject new vitality into development.
Relying on "Operation Splendid" to facilitate foreigners coming to China to make payments
At the beginning of 2024, UnionPay actively responded to the State Council's "Opinions on Further Optimizing Payment Services and Improving Payment Convenience" and launched the "Splendid Action" to give full play to the advantages of "full products, full coverage, and multiple scenarios" and work with all parties in the industry to build convenience and inclusiveness. , inclusive payment ecosystem.
Overseas, UnionPay focuses on enriching the supply of payment products and takes this opportunity to launch the "Splendid China Card", a special card product specially designed for people coming to China. At present, UnionPay has signed relevant cooperation agreements with 46 institutions in 17 overseas markets, and the number of institutions online has reached 42. In markets such as Armenia and East Timor, UnionPay has achieved breakthroughs in local card issuance for the first time. Local transfer networks in Uzbekistan, Turkey and other countries will also work with UnionPay to issue dual-label cards. The scale of overseas UnionPay card issuance continues to expand.
Domestically, UnionPay works with all parties in the industry to optimize the acceptance environment for overseas UnionPay payment products. At present, the outdoor card acceptance coverage rate at key merchants in key cities within the country reaches 99%. Taking the transportation field as an example, major high-speed rail stations, Railway 12306 English version website and official APP in 41 key cities in China all support UnionPay cards for convenient ticket purchase. Key cross-border transportation scenarios such as the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and the China-Laos Railway have also enabled overseas passengers to use various UnionPay payment methods. At the end of 2024, UnionPay and WeChat Pay reached an interconnection and cooperation outcome, making overseas UnionPay payment products universal and easy to use domestically.
Accelerate "interconnection" and innovate cross-border payment cooperation methods
"Network interconnection" is an innovative business development plan launched by UnionPay in recent years. Through one-point docking with overseas networks, it ultimately enables cross-border mutual scanning between brand users and merchants of both parties. This not only provides great convenience for cross-border payment needs, but also promotes the "going out" of my country's financial infrastructure and technical standards, and uses the "UnionPay Solution" to lay the foundation for mainstream institutions to fully open UnionPay card acceptance and large-scale card issuance.
In 2024, UnionPay has signed a memorandum of cooperation or cooperation agreement on cross-border interconnection of QR codes with QR code payment networks in Vietnam, Argentina, Laos, Nepal and other countries. This is the first time for such cooperation to be implemented in Latin America. On this basis, UnionPay is exploring cooperation with overseas local QR code networks in the G2G (government-to-government) model. In October 2024, UnionPay International and the National Payments Corporation of Vietnam (NAPAS) signed a memorandum of cooperation on cross-border interconnection of QR codes. The two parties cooperated as representatives of their national payment networks, setting a benchmark for relevant inter-governmental cooperation.
At present, UnionPay has reached or promoted relevant cooperation with local networks in 19 overseas countries and regions, which has expanded the UnionPay QR code overseas acceptance network to approximately 10 million merchants in 46 countries and regions, greatly improving the cross-border mobile payment experience for bilateral personnel. .
2025 is the final year of the country’s “14th Five-Year Plan”. In this critical year, UnionPay International will continue to take “global network, international brand” as its vision and work with all parties in the industry to build a more convenient, inclusive and inclusive The cross-border payment ecosystem contributes more value to users and partners, and contributes more to building a financial power and opening up to the outside world with high-level services.
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