History
The major shareholders of the company include the People’s Bank of China, the Commercial Bank of China, and other behemoths of the financial sector in Asia.
In 2012, UnionPay established UnionPay International, a subsidiary in charge of the expansion into foreign markets. So far, the company has inked deals with more than 2,500 institutions across the world, securing the acceptance of its debit, credit, and prepaid cards in 181 countries.
In fact, UnionPay is the number one card issuer in the world, with 9.4 billion cards in circulation, according to data released by researcher Nilson. More than 30% of all card transactions are completed using UnionPay cards, a result topped only by Visa, with its 40% market share.