Thunes and UnionPay International (UPI) have expanded their alliance to enable instant payouts to UnionPay cards in China’s mainland.
The announcement deepens the existing strategic alliance between Thunes and UPI. Under the arrangement, financial institutions, payment service providers, and money transfer operators connected to Thunes can route instant cross-border consumer payouts to UnionPay cards held in China’s mainland, with transfers of up to USD 10,000 per recipient cardholder per day.
The service covers UnionPay cardholders across 79 Chinese banks. These include Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), Bank of China (BOC), China Construction Bank (CCB), Bank of Communications (BOCOM), and China Merchants Bank (CMB). The offering is intended to reach countries worldwide, with Africa, Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand, Thailand, and the US identified as key expansion corridors.
Raising transfer limits to China’s mainland
Inbound cross-border remittances to China’s mainland have historically been subject to low daily transaction caps. As a result, senders moving larger personal amounts have often had to split transfers over several days or go through complex manual processing.
To address this, Thunes has integrated UPI’s increased daily payment limit directly into its payout infrastructure. Members of the Thunes network can now carry out real-time transfers of up to USD 10,000 to each recipient cardholder in a single daily transaction. For businesses, this allows larger volumes to be sent. For consumers, family support payments that previously required several transactions can be completed at once, reducing operational steps and settlement delays.
Single API access to China’s card ecosystem
The collaboration links Thunes’ Direct Global Network to UPI through a single API. According to the companies, this gives Thunes’ Members access to China’s card ecosystem without high setup costs, strict eligibility requirements, or ongoing technical maintenance.
Thunes is an officially recognised strategic partner to UPI and presents the service as a compliant, bank-grade route for Pay-to-Card services into China’s mainland. The companies state that the direct connection is designed to remove the risks of system outages, unauthorised routing, and service disruptions.
Commenting on the development, Chloé Mayenobe, Deputy CEO at Thunes, described the strengthened alignment with UPI as a significant shift in how money moves globally. The official noted that higher-limit, direct-to-card payouts into China’s mainland address legacy barriers in what she characterised as one of the most dynamic payment corridors worldwide. According to Mayenobe, the higher transaction limits are intended to support the growth of Thunes’ Members and allow financial institutions to scale their cross-border flows into China with speed and compliance.
