UnionPay International announced today that it has inked a cooperation agreement with Swedbank, the largest acquirer in Sweden, to enable the latter’s merchants in several Nordic countries and the three Baltic states to accept UnionPay cards in two years, substantially expanding UnionPay’s acceptance scope in the region. China UnionPay Chairman Shi Wenchao, and Swedbank Executive Vice-Presidents MiKael Björknert and Leif Karlsson attended the signing ceremony. Chen Yuming, Chinese ambassador to Sweden, and Thomas Brühl, Executive President of Visit Sweden were present to witness.

Now, about two million merchants in Europe accept UnionPay cards, which satisfies tourists’ payments needs. Since this year, countries in the North Eastern Europe and Southern Europe are gaining popularity among tourists, and become competitive rivals to traditional European tourist destinations. Against this background, UnionPay International is enhancing its cooperation with mainstream institutions in expanding its acceptance footprint in emerging tourist destinations.

Swedbank has presence in several Nordic and Baltic countries, and holds a market share of 60% in Sweden. With this cooperation, the two sides will: first, enable a large number of merchants in Sweden to accept UnionPay cards; second, enable Swedbank’s merchants in Finland, Denmark, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania to accept UnionPay. This will be UnionPay’s debut in the latter three Baltic countries.

According to Shi Wenchao, UnionPay has made remarkable progress in Europe over the past few years. First, UnionPay has presence in 38 European countries and regions while its acceptance footprint has extended from major cities to surrounding regions. Second, more types of merchants are accepting UnionPay, including duty free shops, department stores, daily spending places and cultural and entertainment establishments. This all-round cooperation with Swedbank will keep improve UnionPay cardholders’ payment experiences in Europe, and we will look for more opportunities for future cooperation with the local institutions in online payment and mobile payment.

Mikael Björknert said, Swedbank have served Swedish companies doing business in China for some years. By signing this “incentive agreement”, Swedbank will start the work for enabling the acceptance of UnionPay cards in our terminal estate located in the Nordic and Baltic countries. We now take the next step in order to strengthen and develop the business relationship between Sweden and China. The acquiring for UnionPay allows us to serve the growing numbers of Chinese tourists and business people coming to visit us. This agreement will not only benefit cardholders and card issuers but also the merchants.

Chen Yuming said, this cooperation is a win-win cooperation between Chinese and Swedish financial enterprises. It will help promote the economic cooperation and personnel exchanges between the two countries. In the future, we will go on supporting UnionPay International’s cooperation with Swedish institutions to promote the local banks and merchants to provide UnionPay service for customers. With UnionPay’s progress in Sweden, I hope more institutions, merchants and the public in Sweden can know more about China and like China.

UnionPay’s acceptance network in Northern Europe is optimizing. In Sweden, merchants accepting UnionPay are mainly stores and duty free shops frequented by tourists, and the local ATMs will support UnionPay cards for cash withdrawal soon. In addition, UnionPay cards are accepted at about 90% of merchants in Denmark as well as an increasing number of merchants in Finland and other countries.