China UnionPay Co is expanding its overseas network rapidly to tap the rising number of Chinese traveling overseas.

Meanwhile, Visa International is reportedly banning the use of dual-currency cards that sports a Visa logo on UnionPay network overseas from August 1 ostensibly for data safety issues. Visa was not available for comment yesterday.

UnionPay, China's sole bank card transaction firm, has allied with France's Bred network of more than 5,000 merchants as it seeks to deepen its footprint in that country, the Shanghai-based company said yesterday.

Last week, UnionPay said that it has teamed up with Bank of Hawaii to bank on the lender's network of 4,000 merchants on the island.

UnionPay is speeding up the development of its overseas network, especially when more Chinese are going abroad. UnionPay's biggest selling point is that it does not charge for currency exchange services. Visa and MasterCard Worldwide charge a 1.5 percent fee for converting overseas currencies into United States dollars when cards holders purchase or make payments abroad.

Dual-currency cards, which sport the logos of UnionPay and Visa or MasterCard or JCB, were quite popular before UnionPay started to expand its own network overseas in 2004.