UnionPay International and ANZ Bank jointly announced on June 11 in Melbourne that all the ATMs and merchants under ANZ in Australia would accept UnionPay cards (card number starting with 62) including UnionPay chip cards. At the same time, UnionPay QuickPass service is launched in the Australian market. As the largest department group locally, Myer ranks to be the first merchant to provide the UnionPay QuickPass service in Australia. Cai Jianbo, UnionPay International CEO, Michael Smith, ANZ CEO and Richard Umbers, Myer CEO jointly attended the ceremony. Song Yumin, Chinese Consul-General to Melbourne, was present with congratulations.
ANZ is one of the four major banks in Australia. The overall acceptance of UnionPay cards by ANZ has increased the ATMs acceptance coverage of UnionPay cards in Australia from the 70% to 80%. It is expected that all the merchants under ANZ will accept UnionPay cards by the end of this year, which means about 55% of the merchants in Australia will accept UnionPay cards. The overall acceptance of UnionPay cards by ANZ will enable other major banks to accelerate business cooperations with UnionPay International.
All the merchants under ANZ enabling to accept UnionPay cards will support UnionPay QuickPass service as well. It is the first time that UnionPay QuickPass launches in markets beyond Asia, which realizes the contactless payment of UnionPay chip cards and supports the UnionPay mobile payment of HCE.
Cai Jianbo said that the launch of such business expands the UnionPay card acceptance in Australia and promotepayment experience. Besides, the technology of UnionPay card acceptance has been upgraded, which further improves the security of card use and complies with the trend of technological innovation as well as the alteration of card using habits. Such significant headway sets the foundation for the localization of UnionPay cards and the launch of HEC function in Australia.
Michael Smith said that UnionPay is a fast-growing international payment network providing service to the world’s largest cardholder base. We will deepen our cooperation with UnionPay International to offer more diversified cross-border payment services to Chinese tourists, business people and students coming to Australia.
Richard Umbers said that Myer is committed to providing a comfortable shopping experience for the consumers. All of the Myer department stores in Australia will accept UnionPay cards. Consumers in Myer will enjoy a more convenient payment experience by TAP&GO services.
Song Yumin said that UnionPay cards have become more and more popular in Australia with the increasingly close cooperation between China and Australia. The combination of UnionPay International and ANZ based on win-win cooperation is a milestone in UnionPay’s business expansion and plays a substantiating the content of the Free Trade Agreement between China and Australia. It provides more convenient payment services for the people and businesses of two countries.
As a UnionPay innovative chip-based contactless payment product, QuickPass allows cardholders to pay with a simple tap-and-go with complicated payment process. In Australia, cardholders can use their UnionPay credit cards under a certain payment to verify their transactions without signature or PIN after waving the cards, while it is necessary for the UnionPay debit cards to enter password on QuickPass for the security. Compared with payment by QR code scanning, QuickPass is more secure and convenient, which is not subject to Wi-Fi network or international roaming flow restrictions.
In the meantime, UnionPay International has spared no efforts to promote the QuickPass firstly in Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, Taiwan and other mature markets of UnionPay card service. The application scope of innovative products has been expanded continuously. At present, the UnionPay card acceptance network covers over 150 countries and regions. UnionPay cards are acceptable in over 26 million merchants and 1.8 million ATMs across the world. In Australia, the UnionPay card acceptance network has also been extended to the preferred destinations.
