(Yicai Global) May 29 -- China UnionPay overtook the US’ Visa for the first time last year to claim its place as the world’s most popular debit card provider, according to the latest research.

UnionPay seized 40.03 percent of the world’s debit card market in 2022, an increase of 1.39 percentage point, while Visa held 38.78 percent of the market, a dip of 0.82 percentage point, according to a recent report by US market research company Nielsen Holdings.

There were a combined 624.86 billion transactions made last year using credit, debit and prepaid cards from Visa, UnionPay, Mastercard, American Express and other major bank card providers, an increase of 7.5 percent from the year before, New York-based Nielsen said. Debit cards accounted for 63.8 percent of these transactions.

In terms of both credit and debit cards, Visa topped the world’s market with a 38.7 percent share, UnionPay came in second with 34 percent and Mastercard was third at 24 percent.

Editor: Kim Taylor