UnionPay seeks to turn tables on market leaders Visa and MasterCard

China UnionPay is set to break the dominance of Visa and MasterCard in the global card issue and payment-processing sector after learning a lesson from the two market leaders.

In a rare interview with overseas media, Xu Luode, the president and chief executive of the mainland's bank card association, told the South China Morning Post that UnionPay would strive to improve its global market share by attracting members to its international business arm with a profit-sharing scheme.

"We will share part of our profits with the 74 founding members of UnionPay International, a subsidiary set up at the end of last year," Xu said. "In several years, the members hopefully would become our shareholders."

The founding members are credit-card issuers, acquirers and regional card organisations at home and abroad. They advised on UnionPay International's business strategies and shared profits on the basis of transactions they facilitated for UnionPay, Xu said.

The 11-year-old UnionPay started tapping into the world market in 2004. With a presence in 135 countries and regions, it is accepted by 8 million overseas retailers and has issued 15 million cards abroad.

But its expansion has been accompanied by discord with rivals including Visa and American Express, which initiated a complaint to the dispute panel on the World Trade Organisation about the limited access to the Chinese market in 2011 and threatened to restrict the use of UnionPay in the United States.