PayPal and China UnionPay have reached an agreement that will enable CUP card members to use PayPal to shop online.

“After years of being the export hub for the world, today marks the day that China is open for business as an import e-commerce market,” said Scott Thompson, president of PayPal. “PayPal’s partnership with China UnionPay removes an important friction point that exists across borders, and we are thrilled to eliminate the payments barrier so merchants can welcome millions of new Chinese customers to their sites.”

CUP card members will be able to use PayPal in the third quarter of 2010. This gives merchants the opportunity to spend the coming months preparing their Web stores for Chinese consumers, including adding Chinese translation and fast, cost effective shipping methods.

To date, the total number of CUP card issued worldwide has exceeded 2.1 billion; in 2009, the number of CUP card inter-bank transactions reached 7 billion with an amount of USD 1.1 trillion; the overall merchants, POS terminals and ATMs reached 2.13 million, 2.88 million and 930 thousand respectively. China UnionPay has also established partnership with around 400 financial institutions all over the world. As of now, CUP card international acceptance network has been extended to 90 countries and regions. Over 10 of them, including Japan, Korea, Singapore, Russia, Mongolia etc, have issued CUP card.