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The first UnionPay Premium card in Latin America was issued in Ecuador
2019-09-12


UnionPay International today announced that it has entered into cooperation with Bolivariano Bank, one of Ecuador’s largest commercial banks, to issue the first UnionPay card in Ecuador, indicating that UnionPay cards are currently issued in 55 overseas countries and regions. It is reported that this partnership plans to issue 20,000 cards in total, including UnionPay premium cards such as Platinum Cards and Diamond Cards, which will be the first time in Latin America to issue UnionPay Premium cards.

With 19 countries in Latin America participating the “Belt and Road” initiative, Latin America has gradually become a new popular tourist destination for Chinese tourists and a popular investment destination for Chinese enterprises. Under this circumstance, UnionPay International is accelerating to improve its local payment services in Latin America to satisfy the increasingly growing cross-border payment demands in both Latin America and China. At present, there are 15 Latin American countries supporting UnionPay cards. In Peru, nearly 100% merchants have adopted UnionPay cards. Besides, cardholders can use UnionPay cards at 70% of merchants in Brazil, Jamaica and Ecuador and at nearly all ATMs in Argentin and Panama. In addition, UnionPay cards have been issued locally in a number of Latin American countries, such as Suriname, Panama, Mexico, Antigua and Barbuda.

Since the implementation of the visa-free policy between China and Ecuador, the number of both Chinese people visiting Ecuador and Ecuadorian people visiting China has experienced a doubled growth. Under this background, UnionPay International cooperated with Bolivariano Bank to expand its service targets to local residents in Ecuador, in which case Bolivariano Bank will issue UnionPay credit card products in a targeted manner to its customers with demands in terms of overseas business travel, especially to its customers planning to visit China. Those cardholders can easily use their UnionPay cards in the UnionPay acceptance network in 174 countries and regions, and those cardholders holding UnionPay Premium card products can also enjoy a variety of value-added services and benefits related to business travel.

On the basis of meeting the cross-border consumer demand of domestic cardholders, UnionPay International has accelerated the localization process of its business in recent years, and has issued a total of more than 120 million UnionPay cards overseas with which the transactions done increased by nearly 40% in the first half of the year. UnionPay has become the largest card brand in Laos, Mongolia and Myanmar, and the second largest card brand in Pakistan. In the UAE, Russia, Kenya, Belarus, the Philippines and other countries and regions, UnionPay cards are even used as payroll cards, student cards and citizen cards of local residents.

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