The operator of China's bank card system plans to expand its service to 10 more overseas markets, including the United States and Japan, where the Chinese bank cards will be accepted by the end of the year.

China UnionPay Co, the Chinese version of MasterCard and Visa, said the 800 million bank cards under its system will be accepted for transactions in the United States, Germany, France, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines and Vietnam.

"We will have a more aggressive expansion plan to develop a worldwide acceptance network of the China UnionPay cards by the end of next year," said Liu Yongchun, the company's executive vice president, said yesterday.

The company signed a contract with US telecommunications service and networking supplier AT&T Corp to connect its Hong Kong operations with major cities in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.

Its bank cards are now accepted in China's Hong Kong and Macao, South Korea, Thailand and Singapore.

China UnionPay President Wan Jianhua said early in February that acceptance of the cards will be realized in most of the major countries by the end of next year, when China's financial industry is fully opened to foreign banks.

China UnionPay and Citigroup Inc agreed last month to allow Chinese residents to draw money from Citibank's automatic teller machines in 50 countries, and to accept Citibank cards on the former's 8,000 foreign currency-enabled machines.

(Shanghai Daily October 14, 2005)