HONG KONG — Sino Payments Inc., which provides credit and debit card processing services to supermarket and retail stores in Asia, is deploying its proprietary SinoPay Global Processing Platform in Shanghai and Macau to service Asian regional retailers.
According to the People's Bank of China, in 2008 the volume of that country's bank card-based transactions stood at 16.7 billion, with a total value of approximately $18.6 trillion, representing growth of 22.5 percent and 14.1 percent, respectively, from 2007. At the end of 2008, the interbank bank card payment system covered 1.2 million merchants, 1.8 million POS devices and 1.8 billion cards.
Sino Payments says key market opportunities in Asia outside of China are regional chain store retailers with international presences in Asia, Europe and America and growth aspirations for more store locations in Asia.
"As e-commerce and online gaming grow in importance in Asia, Sino Payments will also be well positioned to provide card-processing services to these merchants," Sino Payments said in a news release.
"As the conversion from old dial-up point-of-sale credit card terminals to Internet protocol integrated card-processing terminals picks up in Asia, as it has at most retail chain stores and supermarkets in Europe and America, Sino Payments is poised to become the market leader in Asia," said Matthew Mecke, Sino's chairman and chief executive. "The numbers of transactions and the size of the market in Asia are now huge with the growth in China debit card volumes since 2002 and now is the time for Sino Payments to begin providing IP card processing to Asia's leading retailers."
