UnionPay International announced this month that Kazakhstan's Halyk Bank has officially launched its QR code payment service, making it the first financial institution in Central Asia to offer this feature and further expanding UnionPay's digital payment footprint in the region.

Through this partnership, Halyk Bank customers can now make convenient QR code payments across the global UnionPay network via their mobile banking app, which also supports scanning WeChat Pay collection codes within China.

Customers can also get a "one-code pass" for inbound and cross-border payments without switching payment tools, providing more comprehensive financial support for cross-border trade and personnel exchanges between China and Kazakhstan.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of cooperation between Union-Pay and Halyk Bank, a long-term partnership that has yielded fruitful results. Previously, Kazakhstan's largest financial group had enabled all-channel offline and online merchants to accept UnionPay cards, widely covering high-frequency consumption scenarios such as catering, accommodation, transportation, tourism, entertainment and shopping. By the end of 2025, the bank had issued millions of Union-Pay cards.

Central Asia is one of the key markets for UnionPay's international strategic layout. Currently, multiple Central Asian countries have launched UnionPay card issuance businesses. In 2025, the issuance volume of UnionPay cards in the region surged by over 70 percent year-on-year, with UnionPay gradually becoming a favored payment brand for daily consumption and cross-border travel.

In November 2025, UnionPay International also signed memorandums of understanding with local switching networks in countries such as Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, continuously promoting payment interoperability in Central Asia and facilitating the innovative development of regional payment businesses.

Furthermore, in January, Union-Pay International officially signed a strategic cooperation memorandum with the Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan, under which the two sides agreed to cooperate in building a local QR code system to promote the mutual acceptance of QR code payments between China and Azerbaijan.

With their low-cost and easy-to-promote features, QR code payments have become an emerging mainstream payment method globally. Standard QR code payment systems led by central banks in Southeast Asian countries, such as PromptPay in Thailand and QRIS in Indonesia, cover over 10 million local merchants. Brazil is accelerating its digital payment transformation relying on the Pix Payment system, and Turkiye has built a unified payment framework through the BKM national switching network. In these countries and regions, QR code payments demonstrate development characteristics of "official promotion, unified standards and rapid popularization," laying a solid foundation for cross-border payment integration.

"As payment barriers are gradually broken down, tens of millions of micro-, small — and medium-sized merchants worldwide can access the massive purchasing power of China and the world with zero threshold through the inclusive and ubiquitous UnionPay global payment network. This not only solves the difficulty of cross-border payments, but also injects vitality into the recovery and development of the global economy," said Dong Junfeng, chairman of China UnionPay.

UnionPay has reached or advanced QR code interconnectivity cooperation in about 50 countries and regions, gradually building a widely covered and two-way unimpeded cross-border payment network.

In terms of using domestic Chinese wallets overseas, UnionPay launched cross-network QR code partnerships in seven overseas markets in 2025, allowing domestic Chinese users' payment tools to be used smoothly abroad. Regarding the use of overseas wallets in China, the company has established QR code payment cooperation with over 200 overseas wallet institutions, helping visitors to China to conveniently use their wallets whilst in the country.

renqi@chinadaily.com.cn