Allied Banking Corp. has signed an agreement with card company China UnionPay to launch a credit card, the Philippines-based bank announced recently. The bank plans to promote the UnionPay-branded card to the roughly 1 million Filipinos who travel to the Chinese mainland every year.
“The new Allied Bank China UnionPay Card is the Philippines’ first tie-up with this credit card association,” an official from the bank tells PaymentsSource. “This card will be acceptable across China for Filipino travelers.”
The bank hopes to have 10,000 cardholders by the end of the year, according to the official.
In October, Manila-based Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. had told PaymentsSource it also had collaborated with China UnionPay and that the two parties would issue a UnionPay-branded credit card within the next six months.
Officials at the bank did not respond to PaymentsSource by deadline on the status of that card launch.
Rizal Commercial wanted to offer the card to Chinese consumers who travel to the Philippines frequently for use in shopping at “bankcard-accredited merchants.” Bankard Inc. is Rizal Commercial’s credit card subsidiary in Philippines.
