China UnionPay expands in Baltic region

UnionPay International, a subsidiary of banking card association China UnionPay, announced that it has just partnered with Swedbank, one of the largest banking groups in Northern Europe, to further expand its business in the Baltic region.

The partnership will enable tens of thousands of merchants in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to accept UnionPay cards.

Leveraging the advantages of both parties, the collaboration will enhance the service capacity of the UnionPay network in the region and better meet the payment demands of tourists and business travelers.

UnionPay looks forward to carrying out deeper collaborations with Swedbank in fields including local card issuance, mobile payments and joint marketing, according to the payment provider.

Due to the continued increase of its acceptance and issuance scope worldwide, UnionPay has become a preferred cross-border payment method by an increasing number of customers in and outside China, bringing payment convenience to exchanges in different countries and regions, said Shi Wenchao, president of China UnionPay.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are emerging travel destinations in Europe. According to the data from Ctrip.com, Latvia and Estonia were among the top European destinations with the fastest growth of Chinese tourists in the first half of 2019.

UnionPay has reached nearly 100 percent acceptance in Switzerland, Spain and Portugal, and its acceptance rates in Italy and Greece are over 80 percent. In the UK, over 300,000 merchants accept UnionPay cards while 70,000 more merchants in France have started accepting UnionPay recently.