The Hong Kong subsidiary of Chinese payments giant China UnionPay has teamed up with local digital lender Livi Bank to launch a new “virtual debit card. “
On 12 August UnionPay International and Livi Bank announced the launch of the “UnionPay Virtual Debit Card”(银联虚拟借记卡) – the first UnionPay card to be issued by a virtual bank in Hong Kong.
Livi Bank customers will be able to apply for the card online via their e-wallets, as well as make payments at all vendors in Hong Kong that accept UnionPay QR code payments.
At present over 10 e-wallet products in Hong Kong and Macau support UnionPay QR code payments, which have become an increasingly widespread form of payment within Hong Kong, and are supported by around 40,000 vendors in the city.
Over 30 million UnionPay cards have been issued within Hong Kong, while UnionPay International also hopes to accelerate the use of mobile payments with the release of a local version of its QuickPass payments app.
Livi Bank is one of eight virtual banks to obtain licenses from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in 2019.
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