FinTechs Making A Difference

One thing about the payments business; it is never boring. There are always new opportunities, new partners, and new technologies to keep us engaged and moving forward. One emerging venture-backed fintech partner is Payverse, a unique “direct to qualify” payment processor, enabling China UnionPay credit and debit card transactions in the U.S. along with cross-border remittance services for Visa, Mastercard, and UnionPay.

You may not realize it, but UnionPay is the global leader in both cards in circulation as well as purchase volume. Currently, UnionPay has nearly 9 billion cards (that’s right with a “B”) representing 59% of all cards versus Visa’s 24%, Mastercard’s 15%, American Express’ and JCB’s 1% each. The UnionPay total purchase volume is over $15.5 trillion dollars (that’s right with a “T”).

The Payverse business model provides complete processing support for Union Pay’s debit, credit, and dual-branded cards in the US, while other firms typically support credit only. This translates into a transaction approval rate nearly twice as high as their competitors. As such, Payverse has been recognized as a Preferred UnionPay Partner and ensures all requisite compliance standards and regulatory mandates. Payverse has U.S. Bank sponsorship and is fully compliant with existing card brand rules.

Payverse brings new revenue potential to the entire merchant commerce chain including merchants directly, acquirers, ISVs, ISOs and agents. UnionPay card usage in the US is heavily focused on luxury goods purchases, travel and entertainment, gaming, property management, higher education, and healthcare services. Chinese tourists reached a high of nearly 3 million in 2019, albeit the COVID pandemic substantially reduced the number for 2020/21 understandably. The rebounded tourist forecast for 2024/25 is estimated near 3.5 million*. China also has about 290 thousand students currently enrolled in the U.S. all using UnionPay debit and credit cards for tuition, housing, meals, and entertainment.

Payverse also offers Money Express, a real-time domestic and cross-border remittance service by UnionPay where the payee is not charged the bank service fee. It offers a highly competitive fee structure as compared to international wire transfers, with funds available as quickly as 30 minutes!

Payment providers are always on the lookout for a competitive edge and new revenue streams. Payverse offers development partners an incredibly fast 5-day integration path for direct certification to their platform. This means no lengthy, non-communicative third-party certification lab queue delays. The Payverse tech team delivers direct development and testing support to ensure rapid integration and revenue recognition success.