China’s Union Pay Expands Into Bosnia & Croatia
China’s UnionPay International (UPI) announced on Monday that it has cooperated with Privredna Banka Zagreb (PBZ), the largest financial institution in Croatia, to enable local merchants to accept UnionPay cards as well as provide facilities for all the Bank’s ATMs to accept UnionPay cards. With these developments, UnionPay’s acceptance scope in Central and Eastern Europe countries — the Balkans in particular — continues to expand, providing more services to UnionPay cardholders visiting the region. Croatia has just assumed the Presidency of the European Council.
Last year, Chinese tourists visiting Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina are growing rapidly, and China has become one of the most important international tourist source countries of the country. UnionPay has also established similar services in Bosnia & Herzegovina.
According to the 2019 Chinese Outbound Travel Consumption Report Chinese tourists traveled to over 150 countries and regions in 2019, and many emerging travel destinations along the Belt and Road are becoming their new favorites. In answer to this, UPI continues to improve its global acceptance network. In Europe, UnionPay is accepted at over 4.15 million merchants across 90% of the countries in the region, including 400,000 merchants across 13 countries in Central and Eastern Europe and 150,000 merchants in 5 North Europe countries. Recently, about 50,000 POS terminals in the Baltic states have started accepting UnionPay cards too.
As of now, UnionPay is accepted in 177 countries and regions globally, covering 28.5 million merchants and 1.75 million ATM terminals outside mainland China. Over 70 international airlines accept UnionPay cards to purchase flight tickets. Twenty popular car rental brands accept UnionPay cards while UnionPay’s acceptance rate among the world’s top 10 hotel brands is over 70%.
Related Reading
- China Moves in on Balkans after EU Promotes “Connectivity” rather than Membership
- Eurasian Economic Union Membership Potential In The Balkans
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