About James Yang

As UnionPay International’s (UPI) General Manager for the South Pacific, James oversees UPI’s business and operations across the entire South Pacific region. James has over 18 years of experience in the credit card and payment network industries, 15 years of which he has spent with UnionPay. He has been instrumental in the expansion of UnionPay in China and across the South East Asia and South Pacific regions resulting in 8 billion cards issued across 177 countries, 56 million participating merchants and 4.6 million issuing ATMs globally. Joining the company’s China UnionPay business in Xiamen in 2004, James built his career starting as a city branch Assistant General Manager to regional General Manager of UnionPay International, which saw him set up the company’s first regional foreign office for South East Asia in 2006. In 2011, James moved to Australia to manage the South Pacific region for UnionPay International. In his role as General Manager for the South Pacific region, James is responsible for UPI’s expansion and partner relationships with card issuers and merchant acquirers in the region. He has successfully launched partnerships with many of Australia’s leading organisations including banking partners (Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, ANZ and NAB), education partners (University of Melbourne, UNSW Global, Macquarie University, Wollongong University and Curtin University etc), retail and hospitality partners (David Jones, Qantas, Woolworths and Tourism Australia) to rapidly grow UPI’s presence in the South Pacific. James is also focused on growing a range of diverse products and innovative technology for UPI such as the UnionPay App, UnionPay QuickPass, a contactless payment service, and UnionPay QR Code, providing a convenient payment service for cardholders and merchants. Prior to joining UnionPay, James began his career at a major Chinese bank, the Agricultural Bank of China, working across their information and technology, data centre, and credit card offering.