UnionPay International supports personnel exchanges among BRICS

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SHANGHAI, July 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- As the 10^th meeting of BRICS leaders being held in South Africa, good news is coming about BRICS countries strengthening financial collaboration. UnionPay International signed a cooperation agreement with Standard Bank (SBSA), the largest bank in Africa, to jointly issue the first local UnionPay card in South Africa, and to enable UnionPay online acceptance at key ecommerce including the local hotel groups and airlines, supporting personnel exchanges between China and South Africa.

The aforementioned is an epitome of the rapid progress UnionPay is making in BRICS countries. So far, UnionPay has reached about 100% acceptance in South Africa and Russia, and is accepted at all the ATMs and about half of merchants in India, as well as 70% of merchants in Brazil. Based on its acceptance, UnionPay International is promoting the issuance of UnionPay cards and its innovative products in these countries, supporting the payment interconnection of BRICS.

UnionPay expands acceptance to facilitate personnel exchanges

In recent years, economic, trade and tourism cooperation between China and other BRICS countries continue to deepen. In the first half of 2018, China's imports from and exports to Russia and Brazil grew by 16% and 15.4% respectively, and the number of Chinese tourists visiting South Africa and Russia is growing rapidly. With this trend, UnionPay International continues to expand its acceptance network in BRICS, bringing payment convenience for Chinese people visiting these countries.

In India, for instance, UnionPay International achieved acceptance breakthrough through collaboration with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) last year. So far, UnionPay cards are accepted at local hotels, brand stores, airport duty-free shops, etc. It is expected that UnionPay will reach 100% acceptance in the top ten cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Goa by the end of this year. And by the middle of 2019, UnionPay will be accepted at 80% of POS terminals across India. Since this year, the transaction made with mainland-issued UnionPay cards in India has grown by over 90% year-on-year.

Based on its expanding acceptance network, UnionPay International is accelerating its business localization in BRICS. This year, UnionPay chip cards are newly issued by Golden Crown Group and Oriental Express Bank in Russia. A total of 1.5 million UnionPay cards have been issued by 10 local banks so far. UnionPay International has also reached card issuing cooperation with the Russian National Payment Card Corporation (NSPK), which enabled the MIR card, originally available only in Russia, to be used in 170 countries and regions where UnionPay is accepted.

UnionPay promotes innovative products to support smooth trade

"Paying with UnionPay mobile QuickPass, I took the Moscow Aeroexpress for only 1 ruble, while the regular ticket price is 500 rubles," a Chinese blogger, Qiao Ke, shared on his Weibo his experience in Moscow in early July.

The promotion and rollout of the UnionPay innovative products and services in BRICS countries is expected to be a driving force for payment interconnection and upgrading in the second "Golden Decade" of BRICS. To date, UnionPay mobile payment is available at one million POS terminals in Russia, accounting for 80% of the POS terminals accepting UnionPay. In September this year, Rosselkhozbank and Gazprom will launch UnionPay mobile QuickPass for local customers to meet the diverse payment needs of Russian customers. This year, UnionPay mobile QuickPass and UnionPay Online Payment will be launched in India.

In addition, UnionPay Cross-border B2B Payment Service Platform is playing an increasingly important role in facilitating cross-border trade among BRICS countries. The platform is built to meet the demands of import and export enterprises such as global cross-border e-commerce companies and traditional trade companies, providing a range of services such as cross-border online payment, online payment collection, online foreign currency settlement and E-invoice order management. Since Cemarket, a mechanical and electrical products export platform in China, is connected to the UnionPay Cross-border B2B Platform, the number of orders and transaction volume from markets like Russia have increased significantly. www.ca-b2b.com, a large-scale China-Africa cross-border B2B e-commerce has also connected to the UnionPay platform, making it much easier for South African businesses to purchase goods from China.