UnionPay is considered its descendant, although attempts at unifying China's various credit card and interbank networks have been in place since the 1990s.

[7] In 2014, UnionPay was reported to have been contributing to capital flight from China through poorly regulated store front operations in Macau.

[9] As part of Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign, central government officials met with local officials in Macau and reached an agreement in December 2014 that allows the central economic crimes bureau to have real-time access to all transactions in Macau involving UnionPay cards.

UnionPay is also accepted at business schools and Universities in order to allow Asian students to pay large sums of money for their tuition fees.

Licensed payment gateways in Eurozone countries are:[citation needed] Some UnionPay credit cards are also affiliated with American Express (AmEx), MasterCard, or Visa, and they can be used abroad as American Express, MasterCard, or Visa credit cards.

[20] In 2015, China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) placed a ¥100,000 annual cap on overseas cash withdrawals from Chinese banks-issued UnionPay accounts.

[21] In November 2017, Azoya teamed up with UnionPay to enable consumers in China to profit from the Black Friday online shopping festival via a cross-border marketing platform.

[25] In August 2022, it was reported that Russian visitors to Finland were circumventing banking restrictions by withdrawing Euros from Finnish cash machines using UnionPay cards.

HSBC and its subsidiary Hang Seng Bank independently issue UnionPay credit cards in Hong Kong,[when?]