UnionPay International Supports Payment Interconnection among the Belt and Road Countries

SHANGHAI, May 12, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- From expanding its acceptance network, to issuing cards abroad, and to launching technical standards in overseas markets, UnionPay International has explored a practical way of business expansion along the Belt and Road.

Now, UnionPay has presence in over 50 markets along the Belt and Road. UnionPay International CEO Cai Jianbo said, "Our strategy is to suit our measures to the local conditions in different markets, supporting the personnel exchanges between China and other regions and facilitating the 'Going Global' of China's financial standards."

Supporting personnel exchanges between China and the Belt and Road

With the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, UnionPay has made substantial progress in the relevant markets.

Kazakhstan can be taken as the epitome of UnionPay's fast expansion. Within 2 years, UnionPay's acceptance coverage at ATMs and POS terminals has rapidly increased from 50% and 20% respectively to 80% in both. This figure will grow to 95% this year. Meanwhile, over 1.3 million UnionPay cards have been issued.

In Pakistan, UnionPay is accepted at almost all the POS terminals and over 70% of ATMs. More than 3.4 million UnionPay cards have been issued, making UnionPay the international card brand with the second largest market share there. In Russia, about 340,000 POS terminals and 41,000 ATMs accept UnionPay, and the acceptance coverage will grow to 80% by year end.

In 2016, the transaction volume in China with UnionPay cards issued in Pakistan and Nepal almost tripled, and that of UnionPay cards issued in Russia, Kirghizia, Indonesia and Mauritius grew by about 50%.

Facilitating the "Going Global" of China's financial technical standard

UnionPay has realized the global expansion of its network, brand and products, and has promoted the "Going Global" of China's financial technical standard too.

UnionPay participated in the construction of Laos' national bankcard payment network, and has jointly built the Thai Payment Network (TPN) with the major banks in Thailand. UnionPay also helped Thailand in creating its own debit card brand, TPN.

Moreover, UnionPay chip card standard is adopted as the recommended standard in Thailand and Myanmar, and is taken as the cross-border chip card standard of Asian Payment Network (APN). This February, UnionPay International and the Philippines' switch network, BancNet, announced that they would promote the latter's member banks to issue UnionPay chip cards in a large scale.