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The acceptance rate of UnionPay to exceed 60% in Tahiti
20,000 UnionPay cards have been issued locally
2019-03-19


UnionPay International announced today that it has reached collaboration with Tahiti Bank, the second largest bank in French Polynesia (also known as Tahiti). The Bank will enable all of its POS and ATM terminals to accept UnionPay cards, increasing UnionPay’s  overall acceptance rate in Tahiti to over 60%. Shi Wenchao, President of China UnionPay, and Patrice Tepelian, CEO of Tahiti Bank, attended the agreement signing ceremony. Shen Zhiliang, Director of the Consulate-General of the People’s Republic of China in Papeete was present to witness.

Tahiti is a world-famous holiday resort. About 1,000 merchants and half of the ATM there have accepted UnionPay cards, covering tourists’ favorite consumption places such as beachside resorts, gift shops, car rentals like AVIS and HERTZ, etc. Previously, Socredo Bank, the largest bank in French Polynesia, has issued more than 20,000 UnionPay cards, meaning that every one in five of its active users has a UnionPay card. The local cardholders have used UnionPay cards in 58 countries and regions outside French Polynesia. These include France, the United States, New Zealand, etc. This means that UnionPay card has become an important payment method for local residents who travel overseas.

Shi Wenchao said that with the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, the demands for cross-border payments between China and French Polynesia are growing. This drives the transaction volume of UnionPay cards in the market to grow substantially. The collaboration with Tahiti Bank will greatly improve our cardholder’s payment experiences in this renowned tourist destination and will better meet the payment demands of UnionPay cardholders. In the future, based on its continuously improving acceptance environment as well as the brand influence accumulated by local card issuance, UnionPay International will accelerate the localization of its business in the market by enlarging card issuance scale.

After this cooperation, the acceptance scope of UnionPay cards in French Polynesia will expand from merchants most frequented by tourists to daily consumption merchants, such as local feature restaurants and general commodity shops. UnionPay International will also enable all the local stores of Carrefour supermarkets to accept UnionPay by collaborating with OFINA, further enhancing its service capacity for local cardholders and visiting tourists.

To date, it is increasingly convenient to use UnionPay cards in pacific islands: UnionPay is already accepted in 10 countries and regions in this region. For instance, the acceptance rate of UnionPay has reached 90% and 80% in Papua New Guinea and Fiji respectively. In addition, UnionPay mobile payment services are also available in the region. In Fiji, the tourist can pay by scanning QR codes via the UnionPay app. UnionPay cardholders can also make payments by tapping their QuickPass-enabled mobile phones at many merchants in 9 countries, including Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Cook Islands.

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