[Photo]BC Card CEO Lee Moon-hwan (left) and UnionPay International CEO Cai Jianbo (UPI) hold an opening ceremony of 'BC UnionPay Card Overseas QR Payment' at BC Card headquarters in Seocho-dong Tuesday afternoon and shake hands with each other.

A new era has begun in which there is no currency exchange or card needed for travel to China. This is because QR payments that were used in South Korea can be used in China.

BC UnionPay card customers can now enjoy not only sightseeing but also eating and shopping conveniently through QR payment if they have a smartphone when they visit China.

BC Card held an opening ceremony for 'BC UnionPay Card Overseas QR Payment' at its headquarters in Seocho-dong on May 8. The event was attended by BC Card CEO Lee Moon-hwan, Senior Executive Vice President Lee Gang Hyuk, and UnionPay International CEO Cai Jianbo.

The method of use is simple. BC Union Paycard customers can use QR payment system in China without any hassle, such as installing additional apps, by simply activating UnionPay payment settings in the BC Paybooc application that was used in Korea. The two companies plan to first provide CPM method that mechants scan QR codes generated by customers and will open MPM method that customers scan QR codes attached in merchants in the future.

Until now, tourists had to go through complicated procedures such as buying a local USIM card, registering an local bank account, and installing a payment app to use China's QR payment service. Therefore, tourists often exchanged their currency and used cash.

As the QR payment system used in Korea becomes available in China, tourists do not have to make unnecessary currency exchange. In addition to reducing exchange fees, tourists are expected to be free from miscalculations and the problem of storing small change that occurred while using cash.

'By the opening ceremony, BC Card will be the first credit card company to use QR payment in oversea merchant network that UnionPay developed and commercialized,' said Lee Moon Hwan, CEO of BC Card. 'We will expand our digital payment platform so that BC Card customers can use payment services in various countries as well as China.'

BC Card introduced UnionPay brand products for the first time in Korea since they first launched a business partnership with UPI in 2005, and has launched a variety of digital-based payment services in line with the development of the fintech industry. In February last year, the company opened a service to allow Chinese tourists who visited Korea to pay through QR payment at merchant network of BC Card.

Notably, BC Paybooc QR payment, which was released in October last year, was developed based on EMV standards, a global payment standard. Because of this, BC Card was able to apply 'BC UnionPay Card Overseas QR Payment' of the same standard easily and quickly to BC Paybooc Apps.