China UnionPay, the nation's largest credit card services company, said yesterday it plans to enlist 60 percent more merchants and roll out 14 million terminals, including mobile phone payment services, by 2008.

The Shanghai-based company, established in 2002 by 80-plus financial institutions, intends to promote its brand name internationally and further its penetration into major domestic cities by taking advantage of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Yan Qiang, the company's assistant president, said yesterday.

UnionPay, which owns and operates the country's sole bank card transaction system, stands to gain from overseas banks keen to make inroads into China's fledgling renminbi credit card market with its support, after the banking market opened up at the end of last year.

At China UnionPay's fifth anniversary news conference yesterday, Yan said the firm expected to have 800,000 merchants in China accepting UnionPay debit or credit cards by next year, up from about 500,000.

Meanwhile, it predicted an increase in the number of point of sales (POS) machines to 1.2 million and up to 120,000 automatic teller machines (ATMs) connected to its network on the mainland. It is also planning to develop a new mobile phone payment service with a projected subscriber base of up to 12 million in the first year.

By contrast, MasterCard International has an estimated 100,000 merchants in China that accept MasterCard bank cards, with about 100,000 POS machines and roughly 20,000 ATMs connected to its network here.

"We will add 30 percent more merchants to our network in six cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin to make it more convenient for cardholders during the Beijing Olympics," Yan said.

To help fund its growth, UnionPay plans to issue 300 million to 500 million new shares this year, its second such move, and is expected to achieve more than 6 billion yuan in total market value. But Yan would not elaborate further.

China UnionPay also expects double-digit growth in its overseas card-based transactions this year, as more Chinese travel abroad.

It has forayed into 24 countries and regions including Hong Kong, Germany, the United States, Japan and Russia, and plans to expand into eight more countries this year including the United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa and Egypt.

(China Daily March 27, 2007)