UnionPay to tap mobile finance services

China UnionPay is accelerating its cooperation with banks and insurers to tap into the growing mobile financing segment including mobile payments, a forum heard yesterday.

"Fee income (from payment services) is declining in general as Internet technologies and emerging e-commerce platforms have brought more players in the game," Chai Hongfeng, executive vice president of UnionPay, China's sole bankcard transaction firm, told the forum in Shanghai yesterday.

"However new technologies can enable better customer service experience, which will attract more capital for service providers like banks and insurance companies. That's the core value financial firms can get from providing mobile finance services," Chai added.

Mobile payment, the major component of mobile finance, will grow globally by an average 30 percent annually until 2017. There will be 450 million users globally by then, while the transaction value will hit US$720 billion, according to the forum.

Chai said mobile banks, not the brick-and-mortar outlets, are making an appearance in western countries and urged banks in the city to look into the new model and explore the opportunities.

Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China, said earlier the central bank supports emerging Internet financing models such as e-commerce giant Alibaba's financing platform as they bring challenges and competition.