The move comes as China-based UnionPay faces competition in its home market from digital payments groups Alipay and WeChat Pay. The state-controlled group will team up with a UK-based company as early as October 2018 to start issuing virtual prepaid cards. British corporate clients will give them to their staff for use via a mobile wallet when travelling across Asia.
The action will be followed by more deals to issue UnionPay branded credit cards elsewhere in Europe as early as December 2018.
Earlier in 2018, UnionPay has partnered with La Banque Postale to enable 37,000 merchants and 7,600 ATMs of the bank to accept UnionPay cards in France starting in 2019.
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