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UnionPay becomes the second largest international card brand in terms of card issuance in Pakistan
UnionPay International collaborates with Pakistan's largest bank on large-scale issuance of UnionPay chip cards
2017-05-22


UnionPay International announced today that it has reached an agreement with HBL, the largest bank in Pakistan, to issue UnionPay chip cards on a large scale in addition to the millions of UnionPay cards already issued. This is the first time the Bank issue UnionPay chip cards, promoting the upgrade of the local payment industry by upgrading products.

With the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative and the construction of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, UnionPay has made many breakthroughs in Pakistan: almost all the POS terminals and 80% of ATMs in the country accept UnionPay cards. Ten local banks have issued more than 4.1 million UnionPay cards. UnionPay has become the second largest international card brand in terms of card issuance in Pakistan. 90% of the transaction made by these cards occurs in Pakistan, showing that more and more local residents prefer to use UnionPay cards in their daily life.

UnionPay International CEO Cai Jianbo said, we are giving full play to our advantages in chip card product, standards and global chip card acceptance network to promote the largest commercial bank in Pakistan to issue UnionPay chip cards in a large scale. Thus, we are able to realize the migration from magnetic stripe card to chip card, jointly supporting the upgrade of the local payment industry. Next, we will carry out the chip migration of our acceptance network to lay a solid foundation for the issuance of mobile QuickPass-enabled UnionPay chip cards, so as to enable the local residents to conveniently tap their cards to pay.

At present, UnionPay is present in over 50 markets along the Belt and Road. In Kazakhstan, UnionPay cards are accepted at 80% of ATMs and POS terminals, and UnionPay's acceptance coverage will grow to 95% within this year. More than 1.3 million UnionPay cards have been issued in the market. In Russia, about 340,000 POS terminals and 40,000 ATMs in Russia accept UnionPay, and UnionPay's acceptance coverage will substantially increase to 80% by year end. In the UAE, UnionPay is accepted at almost all the ATMs and POS terminals.

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