China UnionPay (Chinese: ????; pinyin: Zh?ngguó Yínlián), also known as UnionPay (Chinese: ??; pinyin: Yínlián) or by its abbreviation, CUP, is a Chinese financial services corporation headquartered in Shanghai, China. It provides bank card services and a major card scheme in mainland China. Founded on March 26, 2002, China UnionPay is an association for China's banking card industry, operating under the approval of the People's Bank of China (PBOC, central bank of China). It is also the only interbank network in China that links all the ATMs of all banks throughout the country. It is also an EFTPOS (Electronic Funds Transfer at Point of Sale) network. It is the largest card payment organisation (debit and credit cards combined) in the world, based on payment transactions, schemes and number of cards issued, before Visa and MasterCard. It also offers mobile and online payments.
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History
With the approval of the People's Bank of China, China UnionPay was launched on March 26, 2002, in Shanghai by PBOC governor Dai Xianglong, with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Agricultural Bank of China, the Bank of China and the China Construction Bank serving as its first members. However, the concept of a unified Chinese bank card network dates back to 1993, with the formation of the "Golden Card Project" advocated by then-Chinese president Jiang Zemin. UnionPay is considered the descendant of the Golden Card Project, although attempts at unifying China's various credit card and interbank networks have been in place since the 1990s.
In 2014, UnionPay was reported to have been contributing to capital flight from China, through poorly regulated store front operations in Macau.
Global alliance
Starting around 2005, to increase acceptance around the world UnionPay has form several agreements with other payment networks. Some major examples include:
- Discover
- RuPay in India
- JCB in Japan
- BC Card in South Korea
Logo
The CUP logo originated in China prior to the establishment of the CUP network system development early trial run, with a computer and graphics background of the trial operation of the person in accordance with the multiple unity, Heiner Sea, stable development of the concept of vision, commonly known as "angel color". Red, blue, green ternary color block design represent the integrity of cooperation, steady flow, safety assurance, and accompanied by white in Chinese characters "UnionPay." The logo was first registered in 1997 and launched in Shenzhen trial, the establishment of China UnionPay transferred to China UnionPay.
China UnionPay started limited trial card distribution in March 2001 and the China UnionPay officially opened. By January 2002, many banks and financial institutions began a larger trial in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Shenzhen and other five cities issued with the UnionPay logo bank cards, which gradually extended to the entire country.
On October 18, 2005, China UnionPay announced a new logo, the new card keeps three-color blocks of the old logo with other local elements being adjusted. As well as an increased usage of the English UnionPay wordmark. At present, both card styles are in circulation, with the old identity of the UnionPay cards gradually being replaced.
In the use of the UnionPay logo, due to CUP worried about the use of the new logo will be due to the promotion of overseas and the old logo is different from overseas merchants refused to accept UnionPay cards, therefore unified domestic debit card and RMB single currency credit card use new logo, international debit Cards and dual currency credit cards still use the old logo. Until the beginning of 2009 dual-currency credit card banks began to gradually replace the use of new UnionPay logo.
QuickPass
Upon the introduction of EMV chips into China UnionPay cards, banks also introduced QuickPass (Chinese: ??) a Contactless smart card feature similar to MasterCard's PayPass or Visa's payWave. The QuickPass can work within many supermarkets and fast food stores and save plenty of time. Quickpass is also supported by several digital wallet such as Samsung Pay and Apple Pay.
Online payments
UnionPay is China's first financial-level pre-authorization service for secured transactions. The system allows payment for online shopping at any merchant that accepts UnionPay. During 2014, the total amount of cross-bank transactions of CUP card exceeded 41.1 trillion yuan.
Use abroad
UnionPay cards can be used in 141 countries and regions around the world, making it the third-largest payment network by value of transactions processed, behind Visa and MasterCard. Some UnionPay credit cards are also affiliated with American Express, MasterCard or Visa, and they can be used abroad as an American Express, MasterCard or Visa. UnionPay debit cards, however, can only be used in the UnionPay network and other networks that have signed contracts with UnionPay. Since 2006, China UnionPay cards can be used in over 100 countries outside China.
In May 2005 Discover Network announced an alliance with China UnionPay Network. The two companies have signed a long-term agreement that allows acceptance of Discover Network brand cards at UnionPay ATMs and point-of-sale terminals in China and acceptance of China UnionPay cards on the PULSE network in the U.S. As of November 1, 2007, China UnionPay cards may be accepted where Discover Network Cards are accepted in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. As of early 2013, the cross acceptance agreement was expanded to support e-commerce or card-not-present transactions.
In March 2010 PayPal announced a partnership with China UnionPay enabling the use of PayPal with UnionPay member cards.
In 2015 China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) placed a 100,000 yuan annual cap on overseas UnionPay cash withdrawals
Members
UnionPay is the primary network of these Chinese banks:
- Agricultural Bank of China
- Bank of China (including its Hong Kong-based subsidiary Nanyang Commercial Bank)
- Bank of Communications (Credit cards co-issued with HSBC)
- Bank of Ningbo
- Bank of Shanghai
- Beijing Commercial Bank
- China CITIC Bank
- China Construction Bank
- China Everbright Bank
- China Merchants Bank
- China Minsheng Banking Corporation
- Guangdong Development Bank
- Huaxia Bank (Credit cards co-issued with Deutsche Bank)
- Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC)
- Industrial Bank (Credit cards co-issued with Hang Seng Bank)
- Postal Savings Bank of China (formerly known as the China Postal Savings and Remittance Bureau)
- Shanghai Pudong Development Bank
- Shenzhen Development Bank
- Shenzhen Ping An Bank
- Taizhou City Commercial Bank
Other UnionPay-affiliated organizations include municipal commercial banks as well as rural credit cooperatives. Overall, there are 165 financial institutions that issue UnionPay cards.
UnionPay had partnered with JETCO in Hong Kong and Macau until January 1, 2006. As of January 2013, Bank of East Asia and Citibank were the only banks allowed to independently issue UnionPay credit cards in Hong Kong and the mainland. HSBC and its subsidiary Hang Seng Bank independently issue UnionPay credit cards in Hong Kong, while they issue cards in the mainland in cooperation with local banks as noted above. Deutsche Bank only has co-issued cards, with no independently issued UnionPay credit cards.
The following ten foreign banks have the right to issue UnionPay debit cards in China:
- Bank of East Asia
- Citibank
- Development Bank of Singapore (as of July 2009)
- Hana Bank (as of November 2009)
- Hang Seng Bank
- HSBC
- OCBC Bank (as of 2010)
- OCBC Wing Hang Bank (as of 2010)
- Standard Chartered Bank
- Woori Bank (as of May 2009)
UnionPay in other countries:
- Baiduri Bank offers a UnionPay debit card in Brunei
- Bangkok Bank offers a UnionPay credit card in Thailand
- Bank Sinarmas offers a UnionPay credit card in Indonesia
- BDO Unibank offers a UnionPay credit card in the Philippines
- DBS Bank offers a UnionPay debit card in Singapore.
- Halyk Bank offers both UnionPay credit and debit cards in Kazakhstan
- Kasikornbank offers a UnionPay credit card in Thailand
- Kazkommertsbank offers UnionPay credit cards in Kazakhstan
- Krung Thai Bank offers a UnionPay debit card in Thailand
- Lotte Card offers a UnionPay credit card in the Republic of Korea.
- Mitsubishi UFJ NICOS offers a UnionPay credit card in Japan.
- SCT Networks offers a UnionPay Debit card in Nepal.
- Public Bank offers a UnionPay Debit card in Malaysia.
- Mitsui Sumitomo Bank offers a UnionPay credit card in Japan.
- Shinhan Bank offers a UnionPay credit card in the Republic of Korea.
- United Overseas Bank offers a UnionPay credit card in Singapore.
- Vostochny Express Bank offers both UnionPay credit & debit cards in Russia.
- Bank Alfalah offers a UnionPay debit card in Pakistan.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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