At WAIC 2026 in Shanghai, UnionPay unveiled the Release of Phased Achievements of the National Pilot Base for AI Application (Financial Sector), introducing the 1+6+N AI framework, detailing industry partnerships, and launching a joint initiative to advance financial AI development and governance.

UnionPay also announced the Initiative on Collaborative Development and Governance of AI Applications in Financial Services, calling for four collaboration pillars: trusted and explainable, privacy-preserving AI; cross-sector collaboration to strengthen core tech and secure financial infrastructure; openness to share models and solutions to reduce costs for SMEs; and lifecycle governance with tiered risk management and enhanced compliance.

At WAIC 2026, UnionPay presented three proprietary AI technologies for finance—an AI-driven financial transaction time-series foundation model, the Agentic Payment Open Protocol (APOP) framework, and a privacy-preserving LLM inference solution.

The base currently provides a shared foundation of 11 models, 14 datasets, 59 demonstration applications, 61 services, and 145 core resources to support ecosystem partners.

Key outcomes from the National AI Application Pilot Base include pooling resources to cut costs and reduce data silos, strengthening AI security for large language models, and accelerating real-world use cases such as agentic payments, credit risk management, and merchant digital transformation.

The 1+6+N framework comprises a unified portal (National AI Application Pilot Base) with a ‘One Portal, Six Centers’ structure housing 11 models, 14 datasets, 59 demonstrations, and 61 services across 145 core resources; six independent capabilities including computing resource scheduling, high-quality datasets, finance-specific foundation models, AI-based security services, AI standards, and a pilot testing sandbox; and a portfolio of benchmark use cases and standardized AI solutions across five areas: intelligent payments, inclusive finance, consumption growth, risk management and compliance, and operational excellence.

The framework enables ecosystem partners to access mature financial AI capabilities without building from scratch, reducing technical barriers and deployment costs for banks, merchants, and other institutions, while enabling AI adoption in marketing, analytics, risk management, and digital transformation.

Chairman Dong Junfeng highlighted AI’s rapid impact on finance, the Base’s progress since its 2025 launch, and a vision built on three dimensions—sharing resources, collaborative governance, and mutual benefits—to lower adoption barriers and strengthen security.