China UnionPay European Roll-out of Cards to Focus on Nordic Region
China UnionPay said that a third party processing agreement signed last month with Nets demonstrates their joint commitment to further expanding the acceptance of its cards in Europe.
Under the agreement, China UnionPay will collaborate with Nets to provide acquirers with processing and switching services for transactions made using UnionPay cards. Nets’ primary focus will be on expanding the acceptance of cards in the Nordic region. To date a total of 65,000 Danish merchants have entered into an agreement with Teller to accept the cards.
UnionPay added that the cards are currently accepted in 130 countries globally and UnionPay card services have been made available in 37 countries in Europe. More than three billion UnionPay cards are issued throughout the world.
“UnionPay has accelerated the expansion of an overseas acceptance network to make it more convenient for Chinese tourists to use their UnionPay cards in foreign countries,” said China UnionPay’s president, Xu Luode.
“The co-operation between UnionPay and organisations such as Nets will further facilitate the optimisation of the acceptance environment for UnionPay cards in northern Europe, providing better card services to tourists travelling in this region. Also, it will enhance the economic and trade co-operation between China and Denmark.”
Susanne Brønnum, chief executive officer (CEO) of Nets Denmark and chairman of the Nets card processing board, said that a growing number of Chinese tourists and business travellers had visited Denmark since the country’s first UnionPay transaction was processed in 2008
“In May, the average purchase on a China UnionPay card was 12 times higher than what other tourists spend using other international credit cards,” she added. “This is a business opportunity that we want to expand to merchants through different acquirers in the rest of the northern European region.”