UnionPay International (UPI) and the National Payment Corporation of Vietnam (NAPAS) have signed an MOU to deepen the collaboration on cross-border QR code interoperability and enable QR payments by UnionPay and Vietnamese local bank applications/e-wallets on each other’s networks.
UnionPay has been actively driving interoperability with payment networks in international markets to build an open and inclusive ecosystem.
The collaboration in Vietnam is pitched as providing payment services for the Chinese and Vietnamese as they travel across borders.
In August 2024, the central banks of China and Vietnam signed an MOU to further promote collaborative efforts in areas including cross-border payment interoperability.
In line with this framework, UPI has been deepening collaboration with NAPAS and will open up the UnionPay network to Vietnamese wallets on a large scale. In the future, Vietnam’s local banking app and e-wallet users will be able to scan UnionPay QR for payment in China’s mainland.
Network interoperability is UnionPay’s innovative collaboration model for QR networks, which allows UnionPay and its international partners to quickly enable mutual acceptance on a large scale through simple integration.
The model has been widely recognized by international industry stakeholders since its launch.
Up to now, UnionPay’s partnerships with QR code networks in South Korea, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Malaysia and Laos have increased the number of UnionPay QR merchants to 8 million outside China’s mainland – proving to be increasingly effective as it scales up.
