One month since opening, the scale of product issuance, card binding wallet, and offline acceptance network of Mastercard's issuing bank products have all expanded. Zheng Xiaofei, CEO of Mastercard China, revealed that the company has already partnered with 16 banks to launch dozens of new China Mastercard bank card products. In the past decade of the opening of the bank card clearing market, China has given rise to two joint venture bank card clearing organizations, namely, China UnionPay and Mastercard.
On June 14, Cailian Press reported (Reporter Guo Zishuo) that China UnionPay's joint venture with Mastercard, China UnionPay Electronic Payment (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (referred to as UnionPay Electronic Payment) began operating on May 9. As China's second joint clearing institution and third institution to obtain a bank card clearing license, the development of UnionPay Electronic Payment has also received significant attention from the market.
During the opening ceremony of UnionPay Electronic Payment on June 13, a Cailian Press reporter learned from relevant sources that one month after opening, the issuing banks, binding wallet, and offline acceptance network of UnionPay Electronic Payment have expanded. UnionPay Electronic Payment's CEO Zheng Xiaofei revealed: 'China UnionPay has partnered with 16 banks to launch dozens of new 'China UnionPay' bank card products.'
UnionPay Electronic Payment debuts 'Friend Circle.'
It is reported that UnionPay Electronic Payment's first batch of acquiring partners includes nine commercial banks and 12 payment institutions. The banks include six state-owned large banks, and three joint-stock commercial banks, Guangfa Bank, Pudong Development Bank, and Ping An Bank. The acquiring institutions include 12 payment companies, including Lakala Payment, Jia Lian Payment, and Leshua. In addition, the new 'China UnionPay Card' can now be used to bind over 30 major wallets domestically, including WeChat, Alipay, JD, and Meituan and other mainstream electronic payment platforms.
Zheng Xiaofei said that UnionPay Electronic Payment is deeply involved in card use scenarios, promoting the combination of card products and intelligent devices. Through the landing of innovative products, support for online and offline non-card transaction scenarios at home and abroad, providing cardholders with more choices and improving the convenience of payments. The innovation process is also the process of empowering customer institutions, including combining the advantages of brands and shareholders, using artificial intelligence and big data and other means to enhance card product life cycle management and activity, and helping member institutions to develop new products and marketing more efficiently and more targetedly.
Zheng Xiaofei said that UnionPay Electronic Payment will also promote contactless payments, such as card tapping. At the same time, the company also attaches importance to the actual situation of the local payment market, highly respects consumers' payment habits, and focuses on the policy guidance of 'large amount card swipes, small amount QR code scans, and cash as backup,' continuing to cooperate with wallet institutions and issuing banks. This is also consistent with the trend of optimizing payment services and improving payment convenience.
Joint venture institutions vie for the Chinese market.
The opening of the bank card clearing market has seen the birth of two Sino-foreign joint bank card clearing organizations. In October 2014, the State Council's executive meeting decided to open and regulate the bank card clearing market. In April of the following year, the State Council issued the 'Decision on Implementing the Management of Access to Bank Card Clearing Institutions,' marking the comprehensive opening of China's bank card clearing market to the outside world.
In 2020, LianLian Group obtained the Bank Card Clearing License issued by the People's Bank of China and officially launched RMB clearing business in August of the same year. From now on, LianLian Group can expand its member institutions, authorize the issuance and acceptance of credit and debit cards under the 'American Express' brand in China. Just six months ago, LianLian Group achieved its third capital increase since its opening, with a registered capital increase from 5.06 billion yuan to 5.76 billion yuan. 'This round of capital increase fully reflects the company and shareholders' unchanged commitment, confidence, and expectations for the Chinese market,' a relevant person in LianLian group said at the time. 'The funds from the capital increase will be used to continue investing in company development and work with regulatory agencies and partners to further expand our business.'
According to the latest operating data, LianLian Group has achieved full coverage of mobile payment terminals through cooperation with six major mobile payment platforms and has expanded its scale of domestic acquiring merchants by cooperating with more than 20 banks and non-bank payment institutions, with over tens of millions of registered merchants in the network. Currently, most high-end brand hotels, luxury stores, duty-free shops, high-end commercial districts, and dining merchants in China can accept both domestic and international American Express cards.
A relevant person from UnionPay Electronic Payment also stated that the company is currently partnering with banks and payment institutions to continuously improve its offline and online acceptance network, creating a full-channel bank card usage scenario. In the future, the company will cooperate with various banks and payment institutions to establish an acquiring network in China to provide consumers and merchants with more choices and further help strengthen the construction and ecological improvement of the Chinese card market.