China UnionPay (CUP), the largest bank card organization in China, Tuesday launched a card payments business in Brunei in an alliance with local bankcard network Baiduri Bank Co.

CUP cards would be accepted at hundreds of high-end retail stores, hotels, and restaurants in Brunei, said Cai Jianbo, first executive vice president of China UnionPay.

The new business would improve CUP's service channels in Brunei as its automatic teller machine (ATM) business was tapped into Brunei through cooperation with Citibank, Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) and Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), said Cai.

The international network of CUP reached into 84 countries and regions, with eight Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) nations, including Brunei accepting UnionPay cards, said Cai.

According to the data released by CUP in January, onshore cross-bank transactions rose 21.7 percent from a year earlier to 6.94 billion in 2009 and the transaction value grew 66.8 percent year on year to 7.7 trillion yuan (1.13 trillion U.S. dollars).