Angela Brown, President and Chief Executive Officer of Moneris, is in Shanghai today to sign the agreement with UnionPay International and engage in talks with senior officials of UnionPay on how to advance UnionPay card acceptance in Canada.

The number of merchants accepting UnionPay cards in the global market has shown a tremendous increase, giving UnionPay cardholders at home and abroad a network of convenient card use. Moneris and UPI will significantly expand this network in Canada with Moneris' enablement of UnionPay card acceptance.

"We are very pleased to be partnering with UnionPay to bring card acceptance to our valued merchants," said Ms. Brown. "The number of Chinese visitors to Canada is growing at a staggering rate and Moneris wants to ensure its customers are prepared to meet the demand for their payment method of choice."

According to Statistics Canada, the number of travelers from China to Canada increased by 22.5 per cent in 2013.1

"The case has been clearly made for UnionPay acceptance in Canada," said Jeff Guthrie, Chief Sales Officer at Moneris. "Our job as Canada's largest payment processor is to give our merchants the ability to offer payment convenience to all of their customers. As the profile of Chinese visitors coming to Canada for business, leisure and study travel is rising, this is a natural response."

Moneris is expected to launch UnionPay card acceptance as part of its service offerings to merchants in fall 2014.