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UnionPay card chosen as Manila City Card to promote financial inclusion
2017-03-01


President of China UnionPay Shi Wenchao (right), Vice Mayor of Manila Maria Sheilah H. Lacuna-Pangan (middle), and Chairman of OmniPay Melito S. Salazar, Jr. (left) attended the ceremony.

UnionPay International announced today that it cooperates with OmniPay, an issuer in the Philippines, in issuing the first Manila City Card. UnionPay card is chosen as the unified bankcard for the city government to credit welfare subsidies to Manila citizens. This marks a new progress in UnionPay’s localization of its business, and will support the Philippines to realize financial inclusion. President of China UnionPay Shi Wenchao, Vice Mayor of Manila Maria Sheilah H. Lacuna-Pangan, and Chairman of OmniPay Melito S. Salazar, Jr. attended the ceremony. 

OmniPay is one of the largest issuer of UnionPay cards in the Philippines. This time, UnionPay International deepens its cooperation with OmniPay in issuing Manila City Card of the UnionPay brand. This card will be issued first to senior citizens and city personnel, and then progressively to teachers, law enforcers, city hospital patients and constituents of Manila. As an international payment card, this card can be used in the UnionPay network across 160 countries and regions.

The municipal government of Manila and OmniPay chose UnionPay International as the payment partner for Manila City Card for the following reasons: First, to learn from the experience of UnionPay in implementing inclusive finance and the cooperation with social insurance card businesses, so as to enhance the electronic payment service in the Philippines. Second, the partners think highly of the global and local service network of UnionPay, especially the worldwide acceptance of UnionPay in 160 countries and regions. Third, the partners can further utilize the advantages of the innovative products and services of UnionPay and explore mobile payment methods based on this card.

Shi Wenchao thanked the municipal government of Manila and OmniPay for their trust in UnionPay. He said, the Philippines is an important market to UnionPay and UnionPay is willing to share with partners its experience in payment industry upgrade and financial inclusion, and to better support the personnel exchanges between China and the Philippines. Next, besides promoting the large-scale issuance of the Manila City Card, UnionPay will continue to explore the ways to add more functions such as online payment and mobile payment to the card, to meet cardholders’ diverse payment demands.

Maria Sheilah H. Lacuna-Pangan said she is happy to see the launch of the Manila City Card. She is very confident that this Manila City Card will surely help Manila’s City employees and Manila’s Senior Citizens in receiving their benefits from the City of Manila and in their day to day transactions.
At present, the ten ASEAN countries have all accepted and issued UnionPay cards, and the localization of UnionPay’s business in the region is accelerating. In the Philippines, UnionPay cards can be accepted by all ATMs and major retail, lifestyle and F&B merchants. Prominent growth has been observed in local transactions, and cards issued in the Philippines are also frequently used in more than 60 countries and regions. UnionPay card is gaining popularity among the Philippine customers.

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