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Building a Global Payment Network

Amid a diverse and competitive global payments landscape, UnionPay continues to strengthen its global payment network by advancing three strategic pillars: merchant acceptance, local card issuance, and cross-border QR interoperability.

UnionPay’s acceptance network now spans 183 countries and regions, covering over 100 million merchants outside China’s mainland. UnionPay mobile payment services are available in more than 100 markets, while cards have been rolled out across 84 countries and regions outside the Chinese mainland. As of May 2026, transaction volumes generated by international cards and wallets in China rose by 54% and 62% respectively year-on-year. A real-time transaction dashboard at the exhibition area continuously updated cumulative transaction volumes, highlighting the sustained growth of UnionPay’s global business.

Cross-border QR payment interoperability is a centerpiece of UnionPay’s international section. The company has accelerated partnerships with local payment networks across Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Central Asia, Latin America, and Africa to enable QR payment connectivity. On June 11, 2026, the China-Indonesia cross-border QR linkage officially went live, witnessed by central bank governors of both countries. The milestone increased the total number of overseas merchants accepting UnionPay QR codes to more than 46 million.

To showcase services catered to inbound visitors, UnionPay has set up a dedicated booth for Nihao China, demonstrating the one-stop service app jointly developed with China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism. With over 200,000 registered users, the Nihao China app integrates a wide range of travel-related services, including QR payment, public transit, voice translation, and tax refunds. The user interface has been fully localized to suit international users.

UnionPay has been working with global partners to build a cross-border payment ecosystem featuring unified standards, orderly development, and shared success. Five international partners have joined UnionPay at this year’s exhibition, namely, ASPI from Indonesia, ZeroPay from South Korea, Dialog Finance from Sri Lanka, Halyk Bank from Kazakhstan, and Banco do Brasil.

Expanding the Ecosystem and Advancing Fintech Innovation

As digital transformation accelerates, UnionPay remains committed to strengthening independent and secure fintech capabilities. The company has been investing in computing infrastructure, artificial intelligence, privacy protection, and smart payments. By fostering collaborative innovation among members, universities, technology companies, and government agencies, UnionPay expands the ecosystem and supports the development of new productive forces in the financial industry.

The AI exhibition area highlights the progress of UnionPay’s National AI Application Pilot Base in the financial sector, the only one of its kind in China. UnionPay has established a “1+1+N” large language model architecture consisting of an L0 foundation model, an L1 financial payments model, and multiple L2 models specific to different use cases. The architecture is supported by a computing resource pool with over 1,000 GPUs and a high-quality 2TB open financial dataset. Leveraging a comprehensive payment data infrastructure covering merchants, industry stakeholders, users, and use cases, UnionPay delivers robust data support for model training, consumer insights, and intelligent decision-making. More than 120 AI applications have been deployed across four key verticals: inclusive finance, consumption growth, risk management and compliance, and operational efficiency. To address critical data security challenges in the financial sector, UnionPay has pioneered privacy protection technologies for large language model and introduced an innovative edge-cloud synergy approach, enabling secure AI services without exposing sensitive data. The innovation facilitates broader AI adoption while safeguarding partner data.

UnionPay’s open AI platform brings together the innovative capabilities of ecosystem partners, including banks, payment institutions and technology companies. By providing payment, data, and AI-powered services, the platform empowers industry participants and fosters collaborative innovation. The exhibition area for smart payments features UnionPay’s APOP (Agentic Payment Open Protocol), an open framework for agent-based payments. Built on user consent and robust risk controls, APOP explores new models for intelligent agents to access payment capabilities. To date, UnionPay has partnered with 19 industry players to deploy applications including travel assistants, overseas hotel reservations, in-vehicle payments, and utility payments.

Fudan University, Huawei, Baidu AI Cloud, HYGON, and KUPAS.AI have joined UnionPay as technology partners at the exhibition, demonstrating collaborative achievements in computing power, large language models, and cybersecurity. Together, they have showcased UnionPay’s open innovation ecosystem and its commitment to driving the evolution of the payments industry through technological progress.

Delivering Payment Services that Better Serve Consumers, Businesses, and the Real Economy

Using Shanghai as a case study, live dashboards at the booth present data insights, including foot traffic heat maps of key commercial districts and consumer profiles of domestic and international visitors. Data showed that tourists from outside Shanghai account for 55% of total spending in the Nanjing East Road commercial area, making them a key driver of consumption. Distinct spending patterns were also observed among inbound travelers: visitors from the US favor local street food, South Korean tourists prefer popular lifestyle destinations, and Thai travelers show strong interest in shopping. These insights provide valuable support for commercial district operations and cultural tourism promotion.

At this year’s China International Financial Exhibition, UnionPay showcases its extensive global network, solid business foundation, and leading technological capabilities through a wide array of immersive exhibits. Moving forward, UnionPay will continue to grow its global payment network, develop self-reliant digital and intelligent infrastructure, and deliver value to consumers.Hashtag: #UnionPay

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Platform delivers “Agentic Risk Intelligence Under Your Team’s Command” – transforming fraud, AML, KYC, and dispute operations for financial institutions

MUMBAI, INDIA – NewsVoir – 22 June 2026 – Wibmo, a PayU company and leading provider of payment security solutions, unveiled Wibmo Agentic Risk Intelligence Assistant (ARIA), an AI-powered platform designed to transform financial crime operations, at its flagship industry event ‘Securing Digital Payments: Innovation, Intelligence & Trust’ held at Jio World Convention Centre, Mumbai.

ARIA is designed to support risk teams at banks and PSPs, combining AI-driven analysis with human decision-making and accountability. This is highly relevant now, as digital payment fraud challenges becoming increasingly complex. With the sustained growth in the payments ecosystem, financial institutions are focused on improving operational risk efficiency while maintaining strong governance and oversight.

Early modelling shows ARIA achieving over 70% reduction in investigation time through agents acting in real-time, enabling teams to process significantly more cases per FTE per day. ARIA targets delivering recommendation accuracy close to 90%, designed to improve quality metrics across risk operations teams.

ARIA represents a fundamental shift in how financial institutions approach risk operations by introducing specialized AI agents that support data aggregation, analysis, and draft recommendations, while preserving human decision-making authority and governance controls at every critical juncture.

ARIA combines capabilities across investigation, decision support, and operational actioning. The platform gathers signals from transactions, risk models, customer and merchant history, linked transactions, and historical fraud patterns to automate data aggregation that typically consumes significant analyst bandwidth. Using frontier AI models, ARIA generates evidence-referenced verdicts, identifies emerging patterns through multi-signal reasoning, and provides transparent, auditable recommendations. The platform also enables SOP-driven resolutions, customer and merchant communications, reduction of false alerts, and proactive defence mechanisms against emerging anomalies.

Shailesh Paul, CEO, Wibmo, said,“As fraud becomes more sophisticated and regulatory expectations continue to evolve, risk operations teams must manage growing complexity with limited resources. ARIA is designed to help institutions scale intelligently by combining the speed and analytical capabilities of AI with the judgment, oversight, and accountability of human expertise. While AI agents assist with data analysis and recommendations, every critical decision continues to remain firmly under human control.”

Unlike fully autonomous AI systems, Wibmo’s Agentic Risk Intelligence Assistant is built with a governance-first architecture designed for enterprise financial institutions. Every recommendation continues to flow through existing approval mechanisms without autonomous production actions, while all analyses are supported by transparent reasoning chains and comprehensive audit trails. The platform brings together specialized agents across fraud, AML, KYC, and disputes within a unified framework, alongside replayable audits and complete operational provenance for every agent action.

The launch event brought together more than 50 senior leaders from banks, fintechs, payment networks, and technology organizations to discuss evolving challenges in digital payment security and the future of AI-led fraud prevention. Speakers from PayU, NPCI Bharat Billpay, Visa, Mastercard, Flipkart, CSB Bank, Jio Payment Solutions, and Network International participated in discussions around acquiring fraud risk management, authentication technologies, and risk-based decisioning.

Hashtag: #Wibmo

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About Wibmo

Wibmo, a PayU company, operates across entities in India, the US, and Indonesia. As a global full-stack PayTech company and an industry leader in payment security and digital payments in emerging markets, Wibmo stands out for its innovation and impact.

In addition to being India’s largest authentication service provider in one of the leading digital payment markets globally, Wibmo offers comprehensive fraud and risk management solutions, digital financial services, prepaid solutions, and a broad range of merchant-acquiring services. Learn more at: https://wibmo.com/

With participants from places including Hong Kong, the Chinese Mainland, Australia, the United Kingdom, Austria, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand, the event aimed to foster closer co-operation in emergency linkage, resource sharing, and professional training among different regions.

The symposium featured a series of plenary sessions, panel discussions, technical visits, and live demonstrations jointly conducted by the GFS and various government emergency units. A number of memoranda of understanding were signed during the event, to deepen collaboration between the GFS and the Chinese Mainland as well as domestic and international emergency, aviation, and medical institutions.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Under Secretary for Security, Michael Cheuk, said that the challenges of emergency response as a result of the realities of climate change are evolving at an unprecedented pace.

“A shift to proactive prevention, continuous enhancement of international and cross-regional collaboration, and enhanced experience and insight sharing among stakeholders are key to rising to new and complex challenges,” Mr Cheuk said, adding that the collaborative spirit of ISERAS will forge stronger partnerships, further strengthen emergency response capabilities, and secure a safer future for communities.

The Director General of the Rescue and Salvage Bureau of the Ministry of Transport of the People’s Republic of China (CRS), Wang Lei, also attended the symposium and delivered a keynote presentation on air rescue capabilities and strategic development in the South China Sea.

The symposium concluded with an interdepartmental counter-terrorism drill and exchange session, with the participation of the GFS, the Hong Kong Police Force and the Hong Kong Fire Services Department, showcasing Hong Kong’s professional capabilities in responding to terrorist attacks.

The Controller of the GFS, Captain Eddie Liu, said that the GFS has always played an important role in emergency response and rescue. “In addition to assisting in search and rescue, providing air ambulance and other emergency aeromedical services, the GFS also shoulders the responsibility of maintaining internal security of the HKSAR,” he said.

“In emergencies such as terrorist attacks, the GFS would make rapid deployment to assist the disciplined services in conducting air assault, offering all-round support to the HKSAR Government’s overall counter-terrorism efforts.”

Since its establishment in 1993, the GFS has served at the forefront of round-the-clock search-and-rescue and emergency aeromedical operations, while the ISERAS aims to collectively build a truly transnational pool of professional expertise, thereby underscoring Hong Kong’s status as an aviation hub for emergency response in Asia.

Hashtag: #HongKong #BrandHongKong #GFS #Emergency #Response #Aeromedical #Symposium

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By T N Ashok On a humid June morning in India’s capital, the birthday wishes began arriving before sunrise. Students posted videos on Instagram. Party workers unfurled banners across small towns. Political allies issued carefully worded messages of solidarity. Critics, never far behind, reminded the nation of his electoral defeats, his verbal missteps and the […]

The article The Twists And Turns In Rahul Gandhi’s 22 Year Old Political Journey appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).

By R. Suryamurthy India’s economy is supposedly doing remarkably well. Growth remains among the fastest in the world. Stock markets continue to flirt with record highs. Billionaires are multiplying. Airports are expanding. Bullet trains are advancing. Defence exports are reaching new milestones. The nation is speaking confidently about becoming a $10 trillion economy and a […]

The article The Great Dichotomy Of The Growing Indian Economy Haunts Millions appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).

Welcoming the report, a spokesperson for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government said, “The World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) 2026 reaffirms Hong Kong as one of the most competitive economies in the world, and notes that Hong Kong’s rise to second sustains the strong upward trajectory from 2024 and 2025.”

In announcing the results, the IMD noted that, amid rising geopolitical tensions, competitive advantage hinges on credible institutions, predictable rules, enforceable commitments and public trust.

According to WCY 2026, Hong Kong’s rise reflects sustained performance across the four competitiveness factors measured. Among these factors, Hong Kong ranks second in “Government efficiency” and third in “Business efficiency”. “Infrastructure” and “Economic performance” rank eighth and 11^th respectively.

As regards the various competitiveness sub-factors, Hong Kong tops the rankings in “Tax policy” and “Business legislation”, ranks second in “Finance”, third in “International trade”, “International investment”, “Management practices” and “Education”, and fourth in “Public finance” and “Basic infrastructure”.

“In the competitiveness factor ‘Government efficiency’, Hong Kong continues to rank second globally, reflecting the HKSAR Government’s ongoing efforts to promote free and open, stable, predictable and business-friendly economic policies, as well as the international community’s trust in Hong Kong’s legal and regulatory environment,” the spokesperson said.

“Hong Kong’s ‘Business efficiency’ is ranked third globally, reflecting the strong support for industry development rendered by our robust financial ecosystem, as well as the seamless alignment of the city’s business practices and environment with international best standards.”

Amid rapidly evolving geopolitical dynamics, Hong Kong, with its close connectivity to both the Chinese Mainland and the world under the “one country, two systems” principle, and its sound institutions, open markets and sustained investments in innovation, has become a “value hub” that offers both security and growth opportunities.

In fact, Hong Kong continues to excel in various international rankings including those for economy, finance, and talent. The International Monetary Fund has also given positive recognition to Hong Kong in recent months, and major credit rating agencies have successively reaffirmed Hong Kong’s credit ratings and ‘stable’ outlook.

“All these echo the WCY 2026 results,” the spokesperson said.

Currently, Hong Kong is formulating at full speed its first Five-Year Plan, to proactively align with the National 15^th Five-Year Plan.

“With the staunch support of our country, the HKSAR Government will work together with all sectors of society to strengthen our role and function as a ‘super connector’ and ‘super value-adder’, with a view to better integrating into and serving the overall national development, achieving our own high-quality development, creating more new room for development for our people and businesses, as well as opening up new opportunities for global investors and enterprises,” the spokesperson said.

Hashtag: #HongKong #BrandHongKong #Global #Competitiveness

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