A pedestrian walks past advertisements for China UnionPay in Lanzhou, capital of Northwest China's Gansu Province. Photo: IC

China UnionPay and the Australia Post (Auspost) on Monday launched their cooperation for acceptance of bank cards issued by the world's largest card organization, indicating the expansion of the Chinese financial giant into Australia's largest retail and banking network.

With more than 4.2 billion cards in circulation and accepted in over 140 countries and regions, UnionPay offers a widely recognized method of payment for global merchants.

Auspost has more than 4,400 metropolitan retail outlets and 2,561 retail outlets in rural and remote areas, which is the largest retail and banking network in Australia.

According to Shi Wenchao, managing director of UnionPay, Australia has been a very popular tourism and overseas education destination for Chinese people.

The number of Chinese tourists has increased 15 percent annually in the past five years and they have brought great opportunities and challenges to UnionPay's business in the oceanic country.

"Our cooperation with Auspost makes Australia the first developed country whose major financial and post institutions both accept UnionPay cards, which will facilitate the business and people's exchanges between China and Australia," he said at the launch ceremony.

"We must make it easy and convenient for Chinese and Australians to be able to do business together and Union Pay is a wonderful partnership to enable us to do that," Auspost CEO Ahmed Fahour told Xinhua.

According to a media release by Auspost, the two companies agreed to issue Australia's first UnionPay multi-currency travel card by the end of the year.

After years of fast expansion, UnionPay has established cooperation with all major banks in Australia and the cards can now be used to withdraw cash at almost 60 percent of ATMs and are accepted by 90 percent of the taxis.