Mobile payment is one of the hot topics of China’s National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference this year, and is regarded one of the “China Greats”. At a seminar titled “Mobile Payment Drives China’s New Economy” held the other day, a number of experts said that the active localization of financial institutions represented by UnionPay has driven the development of inclusive finance and the transformation of digital economy in markets outside mainland China. It is learnt that the UnionPay International Mobile Payment Service (hereinafter referred to as UMPS) is recently open to UnionPay International’s partners. Commercial banks, retailers, mobile phone manufacturers and third party institutions outside mainland China are all able to get access to multiple UnionPay mobile payment solutions, including UnionPay mobile QuickPass and UnionPay QR code payment, via the open API of UMPS.

UnionPay International is endeavoring to expand the acceptance scope of the “UnionPay” APP outside mainland China, and is partnering with commercial banks and retail groups to carry out collaboration in e-wallet business. CEO of UnionPay International Cai Jianbo said, “The launch of UMPS will contribute to the global rollout of the UnionPay mobile payment products, offering UnionPay cardholders smooth mobile payment experiences both in and outside mainland China, and further facilitating the ‘going global’ of China’s mobile payment services, technologies and standards.”

On the Macau Food Festival held at the end of last year, over 150 dining merchants accepted UnionPay QR code payment. At the Colourmix in Hong Kong, UnionPay cardholders are able to enjoy exclusive offers when making payments by scanning the UnionPay QR code. Customers in Singapore who have UnionPay cards issued by the Bank of China (Singapore) are able to download “BOC E-wallet” to experience the convenience of UnionPay QR code payment…These are achieved thanks to the technical support of UMPS.

UMPS is developed by UnionPay International according to the needs of the global payments industry, and has multiple advantages: To UnionPay cardholders, transactions can be completed in timeframes of seconds, and tokenization is adopted so that the authentic bankcard number is not stored on the mobile phones, which ensures the convenience and safety of mobile payment. To institutions and retailers, the platform provides diverse and low-cost mobile payment solutions that can be launched easily. These solutions include the QR code payment service that need no hardware modifications for small and medium-sized merchants, and the QR code solution with both payment and discount functions for large-scale or chain merchants.

In addition, the platform offers tailored access solutions to different mobile terminal manufacturers. Mobile phone manufacturers are able to equip its products with various mobile payment functions by connecting their TSM (Trusted Service Manager) to UMPS.

The launch of UMPS is an epitome of UnionPay International’s endeavor to accelerate the rolling out of its innovative business through technology upgrade. Over the past few years, UnionPay International has progressed from developing independent innovative products to building a set of platform-based innovative products, so as to support the payments industry upgrade outside mainland China. UnionPay International has to date built a number of platforms that provide functions including mobile payment, payment tokenization, tax refunds, and electronic marketing. These platforms include UMPS, TSP, U Plan, cross-border B2B platform, TSM platform, HCE cloud platform, etc.

Since the launch of the “UnionPay” APP, UnionPay International is expanding the acceptance scope of the app continuously. At present, UnionPay QR code payment is accepted in 13 countries and regions in Asia-Pacific, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, etc. UnionPay mobile QuickPass is accepted at more than one million POS terminals outside mainland China, across 18 countries and regions, including Singapore, Australia, Canada and Russia. In 2017, both the transaction volume and transaction amount via UnionPay mobile QuickPass and UnionPay QR code payment made outside the Chinese Mainland grew by dozens of times.

Relying on UMPS, UnionPay International will introduce Huawei Pay to the global markets this year, and Russia is expected to be the first country outside mainland China that Huawei Pay would be launched. Besides, UnionPay QR code payment will be available in Tajikistan, Japan, Cambodia and Surinam this year. Meanwhile, UnionPay International is working with major institutions in Hong Kong, Kenya, and Nepal in jointly developing the international version of the “UnionPay” APP or e-wallet products to allow more global cardholders to enjoy safe and convenient UnionPay mobile payment service.