Chinese payment system UnionPay International will be launched in Ukraine

According to the controller’s website, the National Bank of Ukraine agreed the operation of the payment system UnionPay International (UPI) on October 12.

The company was established upon an initiative of the State Council and the People’s Bank of China in 2002, now it ranks the first in the world in the number of issued cards. UnionPay International is a subsidiary of China UnionPay. The system is already operating for payments acceptance in 169 countries, and cards are issued in more than 40 countries.

At first, in Ukraine UPI will provide services of acquiring, cash withdrawal, payment for goods and services with branded payment cards. In the future, it is planned to issue UnionPay payment cards by Ukrainian banks. Thus, when signing a partnership agreement between PrivatBank and UPI in July 2018, it was reported that the state bank is considering the launch of service of cards of the UnionPay International payment system in its network of ATMs and terminals in 2019. The PrivatBank cards issue is announced at a later time.

According to the NBU direction, enter of a new financial player will increase trade and economic processes between Ukraine and China, as well as confirm the attractiveness of Ukraine for investors. UnionPay is the fourth financial system in Ukraine with a non-resident payment company along with MasterCard, Visa and American Express.