The 23rd China-ASEAN Expo recently opened in Nanning, Guangxi, with Dong Junfeng, Chairman of China UnionPay and UnionPay International, attending the event and participating in the China-ASEAN Financial Cooperation and Development Forum. This year's expo marks the fifth anniversary of the China-ASEAN Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and focuses on integrating artificial intelligence with the real economy. UnionPay leverages AI technology to enhance China-ASEAN economic and trade cooperation and drive the high-quality development of the digital ecosystem.
UnionPay is building an "AI + finance" innovation hub in Guangxi, characterized by integrations in Guangxi, service delivery to ASEAN, and wider reach across the Asia-Pacific. The company is collaborating with local partners to develop high-quality, ASEAN-oriented financial corpora for AI training and assessing the China-ASEAN financial AI service sharing network. Additionally, UnionPay is co-creating Guangxi's alliance for combating telecom fraud, further strengthening its cross-border risk governance.
Powered by its in-house AI-driven risk control system, UnionPay has seen a significant drop in fraud rates among pilot banks. The Out-of-Band (OOB) enhanced authentication implementation has resulted in a 90% decrease in the overall fraud rate against pre-deployment levels. Furthermore, UnionPay is collaborating with overseas terminal manufacturers to roll out intelligent upgrades on their devices, effectively preventing various cross-border payment risks and making cross-border financial services more secure and user-friendly.
The UnionPay exhibition area at the expo features immersive experience zones for intelligent in-vehicle systems and smart glasses, showcasing the Agentic Payment Open Protocol (APOP) framework. This framework enables the end-to-end integration of services and AI-powered payment in multiple use cases. The intuitive presentations demonstrate the efficacy of the financial AI product cycle, from R&D in major Chinese cities to integration in Guangxi and application in ASEAN nations.
This year's expo also features a dedicated area for matching supply and demand in AI-powered procurement, focusing on "Procurement in China," "Export to China," and "Investment in China." UnionPay continues to refine its payment service system for ASEAN by strengthening the infrastructure for regional economic and trade connectivity. The company's acceptance network has expanded to ten ASEAN countries, covering over 38 million QR merchants in the region.
UnionPay is creating benchmarks for cross-border connectivity under the government-to-government cooperation model in multiple ASEAN countries. A notable example is the China-Indonesia QR payment linkage that went live in June, bringing the number of UnionPay's overseas QR merchants to over 46 million. The company is also working with other ASEAN members to complete the interoperability of payment network standards and integrate systems.
UnionPay has launched the Nihao China App, an all-in-one platform of intelligent and digital cross-border services targeting the needs of ASEAN businesses and consumers. The app allows users to pay via mainstream Chinese QR codes without needing to link a Chinese bank card and provides multilingual assistance across high-frequency use cases in 27 languages. The solution also facilitates departure tax refunds by streamlining the process for travelers, closing the payment loop with an intelligent, all-inclusive service.
Key points
- UnionPay showcases AI-powered financial solutions at the 23rd China-ASEAN Expo to deepen economic and trade cooperation with ASEAN nations.
