The card clearing business sees opportunities for its services with the increasing international profile of Chinese businesses and travellers

UnionPay, the mainland's dominant bank card clearing business, is focusing on expanding its overseas presence after having its ¬domestic monopoly broken up by the government.

Cai Jianbo, who heads UnionPay International - which controls its businesses outside the mainland - said he regards the opening up of the domestic clearing market as a massive opportunity that has inspired the company to quicken its overseas ¬expansion plans.

Cai told the South China Morning Post that China is now a world leader in the use of mobile payment services, and the technologies and experience gained can be used to woo more foreign customers.

"Foreign markets have unlimited potential," he said.

"We aim to launch new, innovative and user-friendly payment services in several overseas ¬markets."

The government first announced in 2014 that it would ¬allow foreign companies such as Mastercard and Visa to move in on the domestic transaction clearing market.

UnionPay had been the sole clearing ¬service provider for yuan-denominated card payments, but that role formally ended last month.We have to highlight safety and convenience as the key elements in the process of exploring foreign marketsCai Jianbo, head of UnionPay International

Cai said UnionPay's QuickPass payment service - which allows users to wave a smartphone above a point-of-sale unit with no cash or bank cards or even a telecoms signal to complete a transaction - made its debut in South Korea at the end of last month.

The country was the first ¬overseas market to adopt the technology.

"UnionPay feels confident promoting QuickPass and our other new mobile payment ¬services to foreign markets, given the mainland's fast growth in the segment," he said.

"We have to highlight safety and convenience as the key ¬elements in the process of exploring foreign markets."

Analysts have predicted it will take some time for foreign players to make any significant impact on the domestic Chinese market, but UnionPay has been putting the emphasis on internationalising its businesses, Cai said. To date, the Chinese company has issued 60 million bank cards in 40 countries and regions with nearly 1 trillion yuan (HK$1.16 trillion) of transactions now being conducted ¬annually.

Foreign transactions now ¬account for 40 per cent of total revenue at UnionPay International, including the use of UnionPay cards by mainland tourists, students and business people overseas.

Domestically, UnionPay's network processes around 55 ¬trillion yuan of transactions yearly from its 5.5 billion cards in ¬circulation.

Cai said the company is ¬also looking to increase its client base abroad as China's economic ¬profile continues to grow ¬internationally.

"There has been mixed reactions to Chinese spending habits overseas, in countries like Japan, but the use of UnionPay cards here by foreigners is also valued at dozens of billions of yuan," he said.

"That [side of the business] is by no means piecemeal."

UnionPay will soon launch its QuickPass services in Hong Kong and several other Southeast Asian countries, Cai added.

It is also competing against Chinese internet giants Alibaba and Tencent, whose mobile wallet services are widely used by mainlanders. Alibaba is the owner of the South China Morning Post.

Cai said the increasing penetration of mobile technologies into people's everyday lives had prompted UnionPay to innovate its businesses and fine-tune its marketing strategies.

In one such move, UnionPay International and its partners, including Bank of China and China Merchants Bank, inaugurated a cross-border marketing platform to make the most of the latest technologies, while offering services and discounts to card holders via mobile devices.