UnionPay International Adds New Mobile Payment Solution Packages to Open Source Platform

UPI wallet solution will be open to partner institutions, merchants and developers through the UPI Developer platform

SHANGHAI, June 13, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- UnionPay International ("UPI"), the global leading payment provider, announced today the introduction of the UPI wallet solution through its open platform, UPI Developer.

Through logging on to the platform, both institutions and independent developers can access UPI's mobile payment solution to build their own digital wallets, or enrich mobile payment functions and use cases for existing digital wallet services. The mobile payment services will integrate seamlessly with UnionPay cards, providing more opportunities for organizations to develop and streamline mobile payment services for UnionPay's hundreds of millions of cardholders worldwide.

UnionPay International continues to deliver innovation and updates to digital service capabilities

In response to rapid changes in global consumer payment habits, UPI unveiled UPI Developer in January 2019 and has launched 17 application programming interface (API) packages accessible via the platform to date. The platform is designed to provide increased access to UnionPay's payment and data solutions to accelerate the penetration of its mobile payment technology.

Since its launch, UPI Developer has been accessed tens of thousands of times and currently connects over 100 overseas partner institutions and independent developers with UPI's innovative range of cross-border mobile payment products and services.

"UnionPay International is constantly updating our technical support programs based on global consumer habits and mobile payment trends to provide a comprehensive suite of digital payment service capabilities," said Mr. Cai Jianbo, CEO of UnionPay International.

UPI has built a robust integrated ecosystem that complements traditional offline payment and technical support methods with the latest mobile payment technology to support partner institutions and merchants across the world. 

"With the launch of UPI Developer, we have fulfilled a growing international demand for access to UnionPay's payment services across a variety of use cases," said Mr. Cai. "By providing partner institutions and developers on-demand access to our products and services, we will be able to rapidly accelerate our digital wallet technology and provide more mobile payment solutions for international cardholders."

The integration of the wallet solution with UPI Developer will help institutions and UnionPay achieve shared growth through cooperation. Together with the program guide on the developer platform, developers can access multiple APIs to create a digital wallet solution cost-effectively and reduce time to market.

Financial institutions and merchants favor digital wallet solutions

The recent Global Mobile Payment Industry Report released by the Global System for Mobile Communications revealed there are over 900 million mobile payment users worldwide. Organizations need to rapidly develop mobile payment services to meet changing consumer payment behavior, and UPI wallet solution will serve as an essential tool to help them maintain a competitive advantage.

The aim of launching UPI wallet solution is to offer a comprehensive range of resources to cater to the changing technological landscape and to provide better support for merchants and institutions. UPI's digital wallet solution offers a one-stop service which includes access to the UnionPay global acceptance network, as well as a variety of UnionPay mobile payment functions, card binding and account management technologies.

Over 17 institutions across 11 regions, including Hong Kong, Macau, South-East Asia and the Middle East, have adopted UnionPay's global wallet solution to complete or upgrade their mobile wallet products and localize UnionPay's mobile payment services to meet the needs of cardholders.

Serving as an example of successful integration, the Bank of China Hong Kong (BOC Hong Kong) combined mobile payment services and QR code payment APIs from UnionPay's Developer platform into their e-wallet, BOC Pay. In doing so, BOC HK enables its users of BOC Pay to enjoy the same QR code payment service as users of the UnionPay app: to make QR code payments at over 10 million merchants across 30 countries and regions.