Unionpay International
“Can China's dominant card network become the global embedded financial infrastructure layer connecting international merchants, issuers, and fintechs to Chinese consumers and businesses?”
Founded in 2012 as the international arm of China UnionPay, UnionPay International (UPI) has evolved from a card-acceptance network into a multi-rail embedded finance infrastructure provider. UPI has grown to enable card acceptance in 183 countries and card issuance in 83 countries through 2,600+ institutional partners. The company has progressively layered in cross-border B2B payments, mobile wallet integration (Apple Pay, Huawei Pay), transit solutions, a SaaS card-issuing service, and most recently a MoneyExpress remittance platform that is being integrated with Visa Direct for real-time cross-border payouts into China.