The UAE now becomes the first market outside mainland China that has launched UnionPay mobile QuickPass service in 2017. UnionPay International announced today that mobile QuickPass debuts in the Middle East through its cooperation with Mashreq Bank, which will enable all its 15,000 POS terminals that support contactless payment to accept mobile QuickPass. According to the latest data, about 400,000 POS terminals outside mainland China have accepted mobile QuickPass, among them about 300,000 were newly-enabled in 2016.

Mobile QuickPass supports the contactless payment with UnionPay chip cards, smartphones and wearable devices. Using mobile QuickPass in markets outside mainland China have many advantages: First, it is very convenient. Now, mobile QuickPass is accepted in popular tourist destinations including Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Australia and Canada. Merchants accepting mobile QuickPass are mainly restaurants, department stores and convenience stores most frequented by tourists. Second, it is more flexible. Customers can pay with mobile phones at merchants outside mainland China, and the service supports various mobile phone brands of Huawei, MI and ZTE. Third, it is secure. Mobile QuickPass ensures payment security via dynamic password and tokenization. 

Mashreq Bank is the largest private bank in the UAE. It is also the first local institution that has launched UnionPay card business. Now, the two parties have deepened their cooperation in jointly promoting the UAE to be the first station in the Middle East to accept mobile QuickPass. This, on the one hand, results from UnionPay’s extensive acceptance in the market, where all the ATMs and POS terminals have accepted UnionPay. On the other, several institutions in the UAE have issued more than 50,000 UnionPay chip cards that support contactless payment, and the local residents are seeking more diversified and flexible payment services. 

Merchants in the UAE that are going to accept UnionPay mobile QuickPass first mainly include snack bars, digital stores and shopping centers. Customers may pay with QuickPass-enabled UnionPay chip cards and smartphones at the contactless terminals in these stores. No signature is required when paying less than 300 dirhams (about RMB 570) with UnionPay debit cards. Neither password nor signature is required if paying less than 300 dirhams with UnionPay credit cards. Setting caps on micro contactless payment complies with international conventions, and is able to better ensure card-using safety.

So far, more than 2 billion UnionPay chip cards have been issued worldwide, and the innovative application based on chip cards is unremittingly enriched. More than 10 million POS terminals outside mainland China accept UnionPay mobile QuickPass now, and Australia is the overseas market with the largest amount of such terminals. In Australia, half of the merchants accepting UnionPay support mobile QuickPass. In Macau, UnionPay is the most widely used international payment brand in the field of contactless payment.