Facilitating Cross-border Payments for Chinese and Cambodian Residents: UnionPay-powered Wallets Achieve Significant Transaction Growth in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia,Sept. 18, 2025/PRNewswire/ -- Under the joint guidance of the People's Bank ofChinaand the National Bank ofCambodia, UnionPay International has further enhanced QR payment connectivity between the two countries, with positive results increasingly apparent. The value of transactions made inCambodiaby Chinese UnionPay-powered wallets from January toJuly 2025nearly tripled year-on-year, demonstrating the strong vitality of the bilateral payment cooperation.

InNovember 2023, the central banks ofChinaandCambodiasigned a Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation, paving the way for QR payment linkage. In December of the same year,Cambodia'snational QR standard KHQR became interoperable with over 200 UnionPay-powered wallets around the world, including the UnionPay App and mobile banking apps of major Chinese commercial banks. Starting fromMarch 2025, users of the Bakong App, owned byCambodia'snational payment system Bakong, can make QR payments at merchants in UnionPay's QR network worldwide and in WeChat Pay's QR network inChina'smainland, marking UnionPay's achievement of two-way QR linkage with a counterpart inSoutheast Asiafor the first time.

Notably, people-to-people exchanges between the two countries have increased with the launch of the"China-Cambodia Tourism Year 2025". Data shows that there were about 587,000 visits fromChinatoCambodiain the first half of 2025, up by 51% year-on-year. Almost all merchant POS terminals and 80% of the ATMs inCambodiaaccept UnionPay card payments and cash withdrawals. With QR connectivity initiatives like this one, scan-to-pay, which is familiar to Chinese nationals, becomes available to them in other countries as well, ensuring better payment experience when they travel abroad.

Currently, the QR payment linkage is increasingly embedded in the retail ecosystems ofChinaandCambodia. With KHQR—the development of which was led by the National Bank of Cambodia—adopted by almost all QR merchants in the country, UnionPay QR payments are increasingly popular in places ranging fromPhnom PenhInternational Airport to Angkor Wat. At the same time, a growing number of Cambodians visitingChinaare using the Bakong App to make convenient purchases at UnionPay merchants inChina'smainland, including department stores, food and beverage, etc.

UnionPay has launched or is working on QR payment linkage with the local switches of 19 countries and regions outsideChina'smainland. As a result, tens of millions of merchants overseas will accept UnionPay QR payments. Looking ahead, UnionPay will strengthen cooperation with local partners to advance two-way interoperability projects in order to benefit consumers.

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SOURCE UnionPay International