UnionPay: China (global)'s card scheme
UnionPay is a card scheme used in China (global). China's domestic card scheme with global acceptance footprint. Available to consumers in China (global). This page covers how the flow works, where consumers use it, and which merchants should accept it.
How the UnionPay flow works
UnionPay is a card scheme available in China (global). Full public profile pending — contact us to prioritise this method.
Typical use cases
- Merchants selling to consumers in China (global).
Consumer reach
Available to consumers in China (global).
Who should accept UnionPay
- Merchants targeting the China (global) market.
Operational detail
The operational half of every method profile — settlement, refunds, disputes, PSP coverage and licensing — is reserved for Payment Methods List founding partners. It's the part vendor sites won't publish and the part that actually decides whether UnionPay works for your stack.
Settlement time
How fast UnionPay funds land after the payer confirms, behaviour outside scheme hours, whether the rail settles gross or net, and the realistic T+n to sweep to USD/EUR — plus the PSPs where the advertised timeline actually holds in China (global).
Book a founding-partner call →Refund mechanics
How UnionPay refunds are executed end-to-end when the rail has no scheme-level reversal — payer-initiated pulls, credit transfers, or PSP-fronted refunds — plus partial-refund support, time limits, and the API surface each PSP exposes.
Book a founding-partner call →Chargeback exposure
Whether UnionPay has any dispute construct at all, which recall/return/indemnity vectors actually exist on the rail, how consumer-protection rules in China (global) route claims back to merchants, and observed loss rates versus cards.
Book a founding-partner call →PSP coverage matrix
Which acquirers and aggregators run direct rail connections to UnionPay vs. reselling a partner, coverage depth and reliability, effective pricing bands, and who to pick when China (global) volume is your primary use case.
Book a founding-partner call →KYC & licensing notes
Requirements to accept UnionPay — local entity vs. cross-border MoR, licensing regime governing the rail in China (global), KYC obligations at onboarding and per-transaction, and FX/reporting rules for foreign merchants.
Book a founding-partner call →Frequently asked questions about UnionPay
What is UnionPay?
UnionPay is a card scheme used in China (global), in the Asia-Pacific region. China's domestic card scheme with global acceptance footprint. The profile on this page documents the checkout flow step by step, the use cases it fits, the consumer base that can pay with it, and the merchant types that should carry it. Last reviewed July 31, 2026 by Ale Aznar.
Which countries does UnionPay cover?
UnionPay is recorded against China (global) in the Asia-Pacific region, which is the market where its consumer reach is meaningful for merchants. Cross-border acceptance depends on the acquirer or merchant-of-record you use rather than on the rail itself. The China (global) country hub lists every other alternative and local method tracked for that market alongside UnionPay.
What does UnionPay cost a merchant?
Pricing for UnionPay is not a single published number: it moves with monthly volume, vertical, entity type and whether you connect through a direct acquirer or an aggregator. Effective pricing bands per provider, plus the fixed-fee and FX components that sit alongside the headline rate, are part of the founding-partner dataset rather than this public China (global) profile.
Which PSPs and aggregators give access to UnionPay?
Access to UnionPay runs either through an acquirer with a direct rail connection or through an aggregator reselling a partner's connection, and the two differ in reliability and reporting. The list of providers processing UnionPay in China (global) today, whether each is direct or resold, and where onboarding is currently restricted sits in the founding-partner PSP coverage matrix.
Is UnionPay available for Merchants selling to consumers in China (global)?
Yes. That is one of the documented use cases for UnionPay in China (global): Merchants selling to consumers in China (global). Vertical eligibility is ultimately set by the provider you onboard with, not by the rail, so regulated categories such as gambling, crypto and adult content are commonly excluded even where the card scheme itself supports the flow. Confirm the restriction list with your acquirer.
What are the settlement time and currency for UnionPay?
UnionPay is a card scheme, so the payer-side confirmation and the merchant-side payout are separate events with different timing. Settlement windows, cut-off behaviour outside scheme hours, the payout currency, and the realistic timeline to sweep funds out of China (global) are documented in the operational section of this profile, available to Payment Methods List founding partners.