SHANGHAI, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- China Unionpay (CUP), China's only national electronic payment and interchange network operator, projected next year's credit card issuance at 10 million, compared with three million pieces this year.

Wan Jianhua, president of the CUP, said at a forum in Shanghai on Wednesday that there were one billion Unionpay bank cards in circulation in China by the end of October, among which credit cards still accounted for a low proportion.

The bank-card organization founded in March 2002 has made its Unionpay cards accepted by 400,000 ATMs and 500,000 POS outlets in23 countries and regions.

Wan said that the CUP's global network is still limited as compared with the global payment giants of MasterCard and Visa, whose bank cards can be used on one million ATMs and 20 million POS systems.

The CUP's 22 overseas issuers have issued 360,000 Unionpay bankcards, including 130,000 credit cards and 230,000 debit cards. The total issuance is expected to top one million next year, said Wan.