China Unionpay Cards May Be Usable in Taiwan

Taipei, June 3, 2008 (CENS)--China Unionpay, China's leading financial-card brand, plans to extend its operation to Taiwan, so as to facilitate spending by Chinese tourists on the island after the government opens up their visits to the island in July.

China Unionpay is now in talk with Taiwan's National Credit Card Center (NCCC) for the realization of the plan, which insiders said may take a while as People's Bank of China has yet to approve the plan and complicated works must be completed, including the linkup of cross-Strait computer systems featuring absolute security, the establishment a clearance mechanism, and the modification of the credit-card terminal systems of local merchants.

Taiwanese officials in charge are harboring a favorable stance towards the plan. Chou A-ting, deputy governor of the Central Bank of China (CBC), remarked that "the CBC will support the plan, so long as China Unionpay and NCCC can iron out the clearance problem." Susan Chang, vice chairman of the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), remarked that the FSC will give the plan unreserved support, admitting, though, that it may not be realized before the arrival of Chinese tourists in July.

Should the plan the materialized, Chinese tourists can not only use the China Unionpay card for consumption at local merchants, but also make cash advance at any local ATM (automated teller machine) bearing a China Unionpay logo.

Launched by 80 leading Chinese financial institutions in 2002, China Unionpay now boasts 1.5 billion cards in use, compared with several tens of millions of cards in use for both MasterCard and Visa in China. China Unionpay card is a debit card, similar to e-wallet, allowing card holders to spend against the deposits at their bank accounts, but in recent years more and more new cards issued by China Unionpay already have the credit-card function.