UnionPay International expands acceptance footprint in the Balkans

- UnionPay International partners with PBZ to enable tens of thousands of Point-of-Sales terminals across Croatia to accept UnionPay cards

- The partnership between UnionPay International and ISPBIH adds more ATM terminals across Bosnia and Herzegovina to accept UnionPay

SHANGHAI, Dec. 31, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- UnionPay International (UPI) announced today that it has cooperated with Privredna Banka Zagreb (PBZ), the largest acquirer in Croatia, to enable local merchants to accept UnionPay cards. Meanwhile, UPI partners with ISPBIH to enable all the Bank's ATMs to accept UnionPay cards. With these partnerships, UnionPay's acceptance scope in Central and Eastern Europe countries—the Balkans in particular—continues to expand, providing more convenience to UnionPay cardholders visiting the region.

The 2019 Chinese Outbound Travel Consumption Report jointly issued by UPI and Ctrip, China's largest online travel agency, Chinese tourists traveled to over 150 countries and regions in 2019, and many emerging travel destinations along the Belt and Road are becoming their new favorites. In answer to this, UPI continues to improve its global acceptance network. In Europe, UnionPay is accepted at over 4.15 million merchants across 90% of the countries in the region, including 400,000 merchants across 13 countries in Central and Eastern Europe and 150,000 merchants in 5 North Europe countries. Recently, about 50,000 POS terminals in the Baltic states have started accepting UnionPay cards too.

In 2019, the Chinese tourists visiting Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina are growing rapidly, and China has become one of the most important international tourist source countries of the two. In 2015, UPI reached collaboration with PBZ to realize the acceptance of UnionPay cards in Croatia for the first time. Recently, the two parties deepen collaboration to enable all the POS terminals of PBZ to accept UnionPay cards. These POS terminals are located in many F&B, accommodation, retail, and car rental merchants, and popular merchants include MULLER and Hertz. UnionPay was accepted in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the first time early this year. Currently, there are about 2,000 merchants accepting UnionPay. The new cooperation between UPI and ISPBIH will enable more ATMs to accept UnionPay cards, bringing greater payment ease to cardholders visiting the country.

As of today, UnionPay is accepted in 177 countries and regions globally, covering 28.5 million merchants and 1.75 million ATM terminals outside mainland China. Over 70 international airlines accept UnionPay cards to purchase flight tickets. Twenty popular car rental brands accept UnionPay cards and UnionPay's acceptance rate among the world's top 10 hotel brands is over 70%.

About UnionPay International

UnionPay International (UPI) is a subsidiary of China UnionPay focuses on international business. In partnership with more than 2,000 institutions worldwide, UnionPay International has extended its card acceptance to 177 countries and regions globally with issuance in 58 countries and regions. UnionPay International provides high quality, cost effective and secure cross-border payment services to the world's largest cardholder base and ensures convenient localized services to a growing number of global UnionPay cardholders and merchants. For more information, please visit www.unionpayintl.com/en