SHANGHAI, Dec. 03, 2025 —
On November 28, UnionPay and eleven leading institutions, including Bank of China, PayNet (Malaysia), Uzcard (Uzbekistan), HUMO (Uzbekistan), IPC (Kyrgyzstan), Hong Leong Bank (Malaysia), OCBC Bank (Singapore), Banco do Brasil (Brazil), FonePay (Nepal), and Bluecode (Austria), formalized cross-border payment cooperation through document signings in Shanghai, China.
These signings marked pivotal achievements of the UnionPay Global Partners Conference 2025 – Innovations in Open Payments: Sharing Success in Payment Connectivity. The event brought together delegates from 72 organizations worldwide, including central banks, commercial banks, and payment institutions, to observe a diverse range of accomplishments.
Bridging Borders: a Connected Global Payment Network
Amidst dynamic shifts in global trade and economic landscapes, the establishment of interconnected, cross-border payment systems has gained international acceptance. Initiating its efforts in Asia, UnionPay commenced payment connectivity partnerships with collaborators in Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Singapore, subsequently extending its reach to South America and Africa. Overall, UnionPay is engaged with partners across approximately 50 countries and regions globally to construct an integrated global payment network.
Mr. Dong Junfeng, Chairman of China UnionPay and UnionPay International, remarked that tens of millions of micro, small, and medium-sized merchants globally can now access UnionPay’s comprehensive and widespread global network, thereby opening up China’s immense consumer markets and invigorating the global economy. Establishing a connected global network is a sustained, collaborative undertaking. UnionPay fosters mutually advantageous partnerships that utilize the capabilities of both issuing and acquiring entities to achieve shared industry growth and equitable profit distribution.
Shared Value: an Open and Inclusive New Four-Party Model
In response to the evolving payment industry landscape, UnionPay has been developing an open and inclusive New Four-Party Model. This updated model integrates both bilateral and multilateral connections, encompassing a broader range of stakeholders such as account providers (e.g., wallet operators, mobile device manufacturers) and acceptance-side participants (e.g., acquiring service providers, aggregators).
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) Card Center has maintained a close and long-standing collaboration with UnionPay. In November 2025, ICBC became the inaugural bank to issue the UnionPay multi-currency card in Turkey. Furthermore, through the China-Vietnam QR payment linkage project, both parties facilitated reciprocal acceptance of merchant QR codes, showcasing the crucial role of payments in fostering bilateral exchanges.
Mr. Setiawan Cosmas Suwono, Head of Committee – International Payment Systems at the Indonesian Payment System Association (ASPI), highlighted that QRIS – Indonesia’s national QR code standard – was introduced in 2019. This year, ASPI and UnionPay signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and commenced system integration alongside mutual recognition of standards, thereby improving the speed and transparency of cross-border payments.
Within the framework of the ASPI project, the Bank of China Jakarta Branch facilitates local currency settlement, illustrating how various stakeholders contribute to making international payments more efficient, secure, and convenient.
Mr. Sidney D. Massunaga, Head of Assets and Liabilities, Wealth and Personal Banking at HSBC, referenced the HSBC Pulse UnionPay Dual Currency Diamond Credit Card and the PayMe wallet as prime examples of their collaboration. This partnership leverages their respective strengths in customer reach, use cases, and service capabilities to provide more streamlined and economical payment solutions. HSBC intends to further collaborate with UnionPay to strengthen payment connectivity.
During the Conference, Mr. Guo Dayong, Vice Chairman and President of China UnionPay, unveiled the Joint Initiative on Open Payments. Seventy-two institutions pledged their commitment to a connected and value-sharing global payment network, emphasizing openness, mutual benefits, standards compatibility, security, and controllability.
For Future: AI Adoption in Payments
Efficiency and security stand as equally vital pillars within the payment sector. Although cross-border connectivity offers advantages to tens of millions of small and medium-sized merchants, extended transaction chains and intricate data present fresh obstacles for risk management. The risk characteristics of cross-border payments significantly diverge from those of domestic transactions. Accurately tracking high-risk activities like money laundering and identifying fraud have become primary concerns for regulators and financial institutions globally.
“UnionPay’s answer lies in AI,” stated Mr. Dong Junfeng. Current large AI models are capable of authenticating merchants from a single photograph and demonstrate superior performance compared to human assessment in overseeing high-risk transactions. By precisely reconstructing fund flows, these models have shortened the response time for cross-border fraudulent transactions from two or three days to merely one day.
Furthermore, AI is fundamentally reshaping the entire payment value chain, making payment processes more intelligent, rapid, and efficient. UnionPay is cultivating an AI ecosystem through collaborative innovation with research institutes, industry partners, and prominent universities, disseminating findings to propel industry-wide AI-driven expansion.
Operating under the guiding principle of “Trusted Ties, Shared Success,” UnionPay plans to persist in its collaboration with global partners through the New Four-Party Model to establish an efficient and secure interconnected global payment network. Its objective is to foster the advancement of the global payment industry and guarantee that the real economy and users across the globe receive the benefits of swift, safe, and dependable payment services.
Source: UnionPay
CONTACT: Contact person: Ms. Zhu, Tel: 86-10-63074558
