UnionPay, China’s largest payment card company, overtook Visa for the first time in 2022, securing 40.03% of global debit card transactions.
UnionPay debit cards accounted for a market share of 40.03%, surpassing the Visa payment system, which stood at 38.78%, according to a report by the Nilson Report, cited by the official Chinese newspaper Global Times.
Transactions with debit cards accounted for 63.88% of all purchase transactions carried out in 2022, reflecting consumers’ growing preference for this form of payment.
UnionPay, whose cards in Portugal are issued by the Millennium bcp bank, maintained its position as leader in spending on goods and services through debit cards for ten consecutive years.
Visa’s market share of debit card transactions has steadily declined, falling from 80% in 2011 to 39.53% in 2021, according to the report’s data, in contrast to an increase from almost zero to 38.68% from UnionPay over the same time period.
UnionPay’s subsidiary, UnionPay International, has established strategic partnerships with more than 2,500 financial institutions worldwide, allowing the company to expand the use of its cards in 181 countries and regions.
The Chinese currency, the yuan, has also undergone a gradual process of internationalization, becoming the fifth most used payment currency, the third most used in commercial settlements and the fifth largest reserve currency.
Last month, the yuan outperformed the US dollar in China’s cross-border transactions for the first time, reaching an all-time high of 48%, while dollar usage dropped to 47%.
In 2010, China depended almost exclusively on the dollar for this type of operation, with a usage of 83%.
China wants to increase the use of the yuan in cross-border transactions and has signed agreements with Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Saudi Arabia and Russia to promote its currency’s share of world trade, which currently stands at 2.3%, according to the system. Swift.
