2010-06-03 11:19

SHANGHAI: Visa International?has asked its global financial member institutions to stop international transactions through the China UnionPay system from Aug 1 amid intensifying competition in the sector, the official China Securities Journal reported on Thursday.

China UnionPay, the nation's sole bank card processor, has been stepping up international expansion in recent years, fuelling tensions with global credit card companies such as Visa, MasterCard Inc?and American Express Co, which are banned from China's bank card market.

No visa card transactions outside the mainland, including ATM cash services or card payments, should go through the UnionPay system. If they do, member institutions will be fined, the report said, without providing further details.

Calls to Visa offices in the United States were unanswered.

A China UnionPay spokesperson told the newspaper Visa had no right to restrict payment channels.

China UnionPay President Xu Luode told Reuters in an interview last November that the company, set up with the help of China's central bank, aimed to become a globally competitive brand, riding China's rising influence, but downplayed challenges to foreign players.

Seven-year-old UnionPay, benefiting from its monopoly status in China, is already the second-biggest brand in the Asia Pacific region in terms of transaction volume, beating 40-year-old MasterCard and lagging only 50-year-old Visa, according to the Nilson Report, an industry publication.

The United States has talked with US credit card companies about barriers they face in China and is considering the best steps to crack open that market, US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said on March 26.