UnionPay, the payment organisation with the world’s largest cardholder base, today announces that it has signed a new agreement with Nets, the leading payment service provider in the Nordics.

The new agreement between the two organisations builds on ten years of cooperation and will see POS coverage in Finland increase significantly.  In addition, the new relationship will in the future enable Nets’ customers to use UnionPay Online Payment services as well.

UnionPay has become the major payment method for Chinese cardholders, a factor of relevance to merchants in the Nordics as the region has become an increasingly popular tourist destination for Chinese travellers. According to Visit Finland’s statistics, the number of Chinese visitors in Finland grew by an astonishing 142% in just four years between 2014 and 2018. Over 237 000 Chinese travellers visited Finland in 2018. Other Nordic countries see similar growth in Chinese visitors.

Zhihong Wei, UnionPay International’s Market Director and Head of its European Branch, said, “We are delighted to have signed a new agreement with Nets, underpinning our long-standing partnership with this innovative company.  This new development will substantially increase UnionPay acceptance rates at both ATMs and POS terminals across Finland at a time when the Nordics become a popular destination for Chinese visitors. 

“This new agreement once again underlines our proven ability to develop products that match the needs and requirements of local payment industries and cardholders’ spending habits.  We believe getting this balance right will accelerate the increase of new merchants and card users at the same time.”

Petri Carpén, Director at Nets in Finland, said “We are proud to offer our merchant clients the broadest possible choice of payment methods. Cooperation with UnionPay is especially important to those merchants who serve a lot of Chinese tourists, the number of which has been increasing rapidly in recent years. Accepting the cards our clients’ customers prefer to pay with gives the merchants a true competitive edge.” 

To date, more than 7.5 billion UnionPay cards are issued in 52 countries and regions, with more than 100 million issued outside mainland China. Meanwhile, its global network has extended to 174 countries and regions, which covers 53.7 million merchants and over 2.8 million ATMs worldwide.