Xiaomi in association with UnionPay has jointly launched Mi Pay in China. Touted as a revolutionary way to perform transactions with Xiaomi smartphones, Mi Pay provides support for debit and credit cards from 12 and 20 banks respectively. In the meantime, Xiaomi also announced that the company provides support for public transportation cards from six cities across China. With the launch of Mi Pay, Xiaomi has become the first smartphone company in the world to support both bank and public transportation cards using contactless card machines. To work with the service, you need to simply add China UnionPay and public transportation cards to the Mi Wallet app. This process eliminates the need to bring the wallets out. As of this writing, Mi Pay provides support for debit and credit cards issued by Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications and China Merchants Bank.
Commenting on the launch of Mi Pay, Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun revealed that China UnionPay is a leader in the payments industry with global power and influence. Jun said that China UnionPay is committed to establishing a partnership with various stakeholders. This will enable them to build a sustainable ecosystem. Jun added that the company is excited to launch Mi Pay with UnionPay since the bank will play a key role in the promotion of mobile payments industry in China.
Xiaomi Mi Pay Working
The new payment service launched by Xiaomi works over NFC by integrating with China UnionPay POS terminals. It makes use of multiple levels of security to ensure the safety of data. To use the service, you require Xiaomi smartphone with NFC support and a secure element processor that has passed the EAL 6+ test.
Xiaomi Mi Pay Card Binding
To bind a bank card to the newly launched payment service, you need to open the Mi Wallet app and select the option to add a bank card. After that, you need to provide the relevant card information and complete the SMS verification process.
In stores, you just need to hold the smartphone, which you binded near China UnionPay’s QuickPass-enabled POS terminals. You will be able to view the bank card details and use your finger to approve the transaction.
According to Xiaomi, you will be able to bind up to eight cards to one device. As a user of Mi Pay, you will also be eligible to avail promotions and rewards offered by the banks.
Xiaomi Mi Pay Security
When a transaction is performed over Mi Pay, the service employs tokenization to avoid the transmission of plain text debit and credit card information. Talking about the app front, you should sign into your Mi account to add a new card. Moreover, you should approve each transaction with a fingerprint scanner.
Xiaomi Mi Pay Deactivation
If the scanner fails to detect a fingerprint, the relevant transaction will not be approved. Even if you lose your smartphone, you can instantly deactivate the service from the secured official portal and locate the device using Mi Cloud.
As of today, UnionPay cards are accepted globally in 150 countries and regions. We don’t have any information about when Mi Pay will launch in other emerging International markets like India.
