As the central and pivotal part of chinese bankcard industry, CUP, the association organization of Chinese bankcard association, underpins the connection and switch among bankcard systems. On the basis of its inter-bank transaction settlement system, it formulates and extends the connection standards for the system, unifies the inter-bank technological standards and business regulations for bankcards, forms the resource-sharing and self-discipline mechanism in the industry, and consequently, leads and coordinates the development of the industry.

The commercial banks achieve the connection and switch among systems and share resources to ensure the inter-bank, cross-region and cross-border usage of bankcards through CUP’s inter-bank transaction settlement system.

CUP’s major duties lie in building and operating the infrastructure of inter-bank transacting settlement system, extending unified bankcard standards and regulations, providing fundamental services concerning bankcard like inter-bank information exchange, settlement data processing, and risk prevention for commercial banks, engaged merchants, and cardholders to push forward the intensive and scale development of bankcard industry, and cooperating with commercial banks to create independent bankcard brands at the mean time.

In 2004, CUP built up a national unified inter-bank transaction settlement system with independent intellectual property and applied the exclusive BIN code to ISO, created the independent brand of Chinese bankcard-CUP card, and set the primary system of bankcard standards and regulations that meet international practice and succeeded in promoting its rapid rise development. Currently, CUP cards have been the leading brand that the domestic cardholders chose to use abroad like in Hong Kong and Macau SAR and Singapore.

By the end of March 2008, CUP cards had been accepted in key cities and major  merchants in 26 countries and regions including Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Korea, America, France, Spain, Luxemburg, Belgium. Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Kazakhstan, Philippines, Viet Nam, Turkey, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Russia, Ukraine, Austria, and Egypt, which satisfies Chinese people’s demands of using cards abroad.