UnionPay inches ahead of Visa, MasterCard in South Korea

China UnionPay has issued more than 10 million cards in South Korea jointly with local credit card institutions, a figure that makes UnionPay the top foreign card brand in the South Korean market.

According to UnionPay International Co, the international business arm of China UnionPay, transaction volumes using the UnionPay card in South Korea jumped from 17.4 percent of the country's total transactions using foreign cards in the third quarter of 2011 to 59.9 percent in the third quarter of 2014.

UnionPay is overtaking the United States-based card issuers MasterCard Inc and Visa Inc, reported ThinkPool Co Ltd, a provider of independent investment research in South Korea.