SHANGHAI, Sept. 8, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- With the increasing financial flows and infrastructure interconnection among BRICS countries, UnionPay is making breakthroughs in Russia, Brazil, South Africa and India. UnionPay is accepted at over 80% of ATMs and POS terminals in South Africa, and 70% of merchants in Brazil. In Russia, the UnionPay acceptance coverage will be over 80% this year. UnionPay International is speeding up its business expansion in BRICS countries in card acceptance, issuance and payment innovation.
Facilitating personnel exchanges through better payment services
China is having increasingly frequent tourism and trade contact with the other BRICS countries. During the first seven months of this year, the import-export volume between China and the other BRICS countries grew by 32.9% year-on-year.
In Russia, UnionPay is accepted at 140,000 more merchants and 55,000 more ATMs over the first half of this year. In the past one and a half years, the UnionPay cards issued in Russia has increased from 400,000 to 1,000,000, and these cards are used in about 60 countries and regions.
In South Africa, major banks like the Standard Bank, the First National Bank and Barclays Africa have all accepted UnionPay cards. UnionPay International has also cooperated with Bank of China (Johannesburg) in issuing the first local UnionPay card. In Brazil, UnionPay is accepted at more than 1 million merchants and all the about 30,000 ATMs of ITAU, the largest local bank.
UnionPay has made a breakthrough too in India this July. UnionPay International has agreed with NPCI to enable all the ATMs in India to accept UnionPay within two years, and to enable all the local POS terminals to accept UnionPay in three years.
UnionPay is not only providing service for the Chinese cardholders visiting BRICS countries, but has become a payment method of more residents in BRICS countries for daily spending and international travel.
Promoting industry collaboration through payment innovation
Besides the traditional acceptance and issuance business, UnionPay International is also promoting innovative payment services in BRICS countries. In Russia, mobile QuickPass is available at some stores to enable UnionPay cardholders to pay easily with mobile phones. The official websites of Aeroflot-Russian Airlines and Siberia Airlines also support UnionPay cards for online ticket booking. UnionPay International has also reached cooperation with PSB to enable over 10,000 more POS terminals to accept mobile QuickPass next year.
In South Africa, UnionPay International is cooperating with Nedbank to enable about 50,000 POS terminals of the Bank to accept UnionPay cards. The two parties have also agreed to offer UnionPay Online Payment at the online merchants of the Bank. These include the two largest local hotel groups.
In the future, UnionPay International will continue its cooperation with the payment industry in BRICS countries in payment innovation, to meet the increasingly diverse needs of customers. Meanwhile, UnionPay International will collaborate with the payment switch networks of these countries, jointly promoting the upgrade of and interconnection among the financial infrastructure in BRICS countries.