| UnionPay adds more merchants to boost use of bank cards |
SHANGHAI, July 25 -- CHINA UnionPay Co has added merchants and sale terminals by about 40 percent in the first half to boost the use of bank cards in China, UnionPay said yesterday.
Shanghai-based UnionPay added 95,700 new merchants in the first half, up 38 percent from a year ago, UnionPay said.
The company also added 162,500 new points of sale on the Chinese mainland in the period, up 42.3 percent year on year. UnionPay also increased its automatic teller machines by 19 percent, numbering 107,100 at the end of June.
With the growth, UnionPay has 616,700 merchants and nearly one million points of sale.
"UnionPay has its presence in all first-tier cities and two-thirds of second-tier cities," said Yan Qiang, assistant president of UnionPay.
Mainland bank card transactions topped 1.3 trillion yuan (US$171.96 billion) in the first half of this year, up 70.63 percent from a year ago.
UnionPay is also expanding its overseas market. The company has expanded into 26 countries and regions so far. Transaction value in overseas markets surged 57 percent to 18 billion yuan in the first half.
At the end of June, 25 overseas companies had issued 1.22 million standard UnionPay cards. More financial players from Korea, Australia and Singapore are expected to issue UnionPay cards soon.
UnionPay is the sole inter-bank yuan-denominated bank card transaction operator in China. It was set up in March 2002 with a registered capital of 1.65 billion yuan.
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