SYDNEY, May 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Recently, the largest supermarket chain in Australia, Woolworths, has enabled all of its supermarkets in Australia to accept UnionPay mobile QuickPass. On the same day, UnionPay International also collaborated with Qantas, the largest airline in Australia in accepting UnionPay cards to pay online for its flights departing from mainland China.
In December 2015, UnionPay, together with over 20 banks, launched mobile QuickPass, a secure and convenient mobile payment product. Now, mobile QuickPass is accepted at over 10 million POS terminals worldwide, covering Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan and the UAE. During UnionPay's rolling out of mobile QuickPass globally, the People's Bank of China has offered great support.
Just before the launch ceremony, Vice President of the People's Bank of China, Fan Yifei, who was attending the "RMB Global Cities Dialogue" in Sydney, visited the local merchants to experience and offer advice to the launch of mobile QuickPass in Australia. He was accompanied by Cheng Jingye, Chinese ambassador to Australia, Shi Wenchao, President of China UnionPay, Cai Jianbo, Executive Vice President of China UnionPay and Paul Monnington, Head of Digital and Payments for Woolworths.
UnionPay's acceptance network covers both online and in-store scenarios. 90% of ATMs and 70% of merchants in Australia accept UnionPay cards. UnionPay International has also enabled many educational institutions and airlines to accept UnionPay cards online. Qantas is the first Australian airline supporting UnionPay online payment.
Australia is also the market with the largest number of mobile QuickPass terminals outside mainland China. 60% of the local merchants accepting UnionPay cards support mobile QuickPass. This time, UnionPay International and Woolworths have reached an agreement to enable Woolworths Group stores, including Woolworths Supermarkets, Dan Murphy's and BWS liquor stores and BigW discount department stores to accept mobile QuickPass in the near future.
Taking advantage of Woolworths' rich merchant resources and given the contactless technology usage in Australia, UnionPay International gives priority to enabling supermarkets to support mobile QuickPass first, laying a solid foundation for the localization of its business.
Besides NFC products, UnionPay also launched QR code payment in December 2016, which is also one product of the mobile QuickPass portfolio. Banks including Bank of China and China Merchants Bank have announced to fully support UnionPay QR code payment, to better safeguard customers' personal information and fund.
