UnionPay International announced today that UnionPay is accepted in Serbia for the first time through its cooperation with Postal Savings Bank, Serbia’s largest state-owned bank. Now, all the ATMs of the Bank have accepted UnionPay cards, and its POS terminals will start accepting UnionPay since the third quarter of this year. This will provide convenient payment services for UnionPay cardholders visiting Serbia.

Serbia is an important country along the Belt and Road. In recent years, exchanges between China and Serbia in the fields of investment and tourism have become increasingly close. In February 2017, Serbia became the first European country to allow visa-free travel for Chinese citizens. During the first quarter of this year, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Serbia increased by more than 240% year-on-year. In line with this trend, UnionPay signed an agreement with National Bank of Serbia in November last year, to jointly promote full acceptance of UnionPay cards in Serbia and to explore cooperation in the areas of local card issuance, chip standard licensing, and innovative payment.

With the support of National Bank of Serbia, UnionPay International and Postal Savings Bank have worked together to optimize the acceptance environment of UnionPay cards. Currently, about 300 ATM terminals of the Bank are able to accept UnionPay cards, and soon POS terminals will be enabled to accept UnionPay. These terminal are located in major cities such as Belgrade and Novi Sad.

In Europe, more than 3 million merchants in 39 countries and regions accept UnionPay cards, accounting for more than 60% of all bankcard-accepting merchants in Europe. The acceptance environment of 16 countries in Central and Eastern Europe along the “Belt and Road” continues to improve. UnionPay is already accepted in most of these 16 countries. For instance, more than half of the POS terminals and about half of ATMs in Hungary accept UnionPay cards. In Czech Republic, UnionPay is accepted at about half of ATMs and more than 10,000 merchants.