Visa defeats China UnionPay

Yesterday was the first working day of August and the first working day of visa blocking the "deadline" for overseas credit card access for China UnionPay, which was repeatedly tried to get through to visa company director Liu Jie's phone. Visa company officials said that the person in charge yesterday were not in the company, today can give reporters reply. In addition, the reporter also learned from a number of banks, as of yesterday, UnionPay overseas credit card channel is not blocked, the overseas card can still take the UnionPay channel.　　A UnionPay insider also disclosed to reporters that visa UnionPay double currency card used outside the situation has not changed, consumers can still go through the UnionPay settlement, exempt from the 1%-2% currency conversion fee. The overseas still can take the UnionPay channel yesterday, the reporter calls ICBC and the Strider service, the customer service staff all said that now still may transact the double currency card, and as long as has the UnionPay mark in the overseas to be possible to take the UnionPay settlement channel. And as the only foreign bank to issue credit cards in China, the Bank of East Asia has said it is no problem to go offshore, and that it is about to launch a dual-currency credit card, which is now ready for application.　　The use of Visa cards outside the country has not changed, according to a person familiar with China UnionPay. In this way, the previous visa overseas "ban" on the "Deadline" August 1 did not fall. Some people in the industry pointed out: "Visa in the global network of its own to charge a conversion fee is very normal." Saying ' ban ' is a misunderstanding, visa does not explicitly say that the overseas do not let the UnionPay channel. It's hard to actually ' ban ' it. There should be no country that will give up such a big chunk of the cake in the Chinese market. Citi Insider also told reporters that the current Citi in the United States can still use UnionPay for settlement.　　The person said that visa and UnionPay used the same channel in the United States, Visa channel, UnionPay has been based on the use of the channel, and now remains unchanged.　　Is "ban" a misunderstanding? In fact, Visa and UnionPay have long been attached to the Chinese credit card market. Visa offered a wide range of training to UnionPay, as well as its own global settlement network. UnionPay has used Visa's global network to go abroad, and Visa has also taken advantage of UnionPay's strength to expand the Chinese market.　　However, the industry pointed out that visa has not been waiting for a long time to open the domestic renminbi business. There was a media burst in early June, Visa International issued a letter to the global member Bank, requesting that from August 1 this year, whenever the Chinese mainland to accept visa-flagged dual-currency credit cards, whether it is the credit card consumption or ATM to withdraw, will not go to China UnionPay channel, or visa will severely punish the receipt of a single bank,　　The first time a fine of 50,000 dollars, if repeated, will be fined 25,000 dollars a month. China UnionPay said that neither party had the right to restrict the cardholder's choice of payment channels abroad, and that the cardholder had the option of choosing an offshore payment channel.　　The two sides embarked on a tug of battle. And soon thereafter, VISA and UnionPay both denied the "ban" abroad.　　The two sides have not made any clear representations on whether cooperation has been completely interrupted. A joint-stock Bank Credit card department general manager yesterday in an interview with our correspondent, said, "Ban" is only a misunderstanding, Visa did not explicitly to the bank said to ban UnionPay. In addition, as the current channel for UnionPay overseas is laid by visa, the cost is mostly in visa, so it is reasonable for visa to charge a certain currency conversion fee. "The future UnionPay will also" go it alone "to pave the way for many overseas receipts, there will be a lot of costs, whether the future UnionPay will continue to be free of currency conversion costs are hard to say. "UnionPay speeds up the construction of an independent international network." China UnionPay, in recent years, has embarked on internationalization in the form of a network of visa-free "soup" in many countries.　　In the past two years, China UnionPay and some banks in Asia, North America, France, South Africa and other countries and regions have signed a merchant expansion agreement, set up ATM and so on, expand its international business to accept the scope of business, and actively pave its own international payment settlement network. It is understood that UnionPay international processing network has been extended to 90 countries and regions outside the country, can basically meet the Chinese in frequent visiting countries and regions for business, tourism, study and other payment needs. UnionPay International network can accept the single and two kinds of identification UnionPay card.　　In particular, the 62-word Head single logo UnionPay card has been widely distributed and used in China and abroad. In the first half of 2007, UnionPay standard Card issuance volume has entered the explosive growth stage, the volume of transactions continued to surge. According to statistics, as at the end of 2009, the total number of foreign card issuers 7 million, the domestic issuance volume of more than 2 billion. At the same time, the overseas expansion of UnionPay also accelerated rapidly. According to the central bank's data, as at the end of 2009, the cumulative number of merchants, POS and ATM accounts for 557,000 households, 698,000 units and 719,000 units, respectively, increased by 28%, 29% and 23% respectively over a year earlier.　　The number and amount of international business transactions for the full year are 34.36 million and 108.3 billion yuan respectively, up 53% and 62% respectively over a year earlier. Nanfang Daily reporter Huang Intern wangxia