UnionPay card acceptance debuts in Israel
2015-01-15
The UnionPay logo is seen on a Leumi Card ATM in Israel
UnionPay International announced on January 15 that UnionPay cards are now accepted by all the ATMs of Leumi Card and Leumi Card merchants will also be enabled to accept UnionPay cards to rapidly bring the UnionPay card acceptance coverage to 40% of the local merchants. This marks the first time UnionPay cards have been accepted in Israel. Tourists travelling to Israel can enjoy convenient and secure payment experiences with their domestic-issued UnionPay cards (card number starting with 62), saving the trouble of carrying a large amount of cash.
Bank Leumi, the parent company of Leumi Card, is the largest bank in the local market. The ATMs owned by the company are distributed across Israel, covering almost all the places frequently visited by tourists. From today on, UnionPay cardholders can withdraw local currency from all these ATMs or US dollars and Euro from some of the ATMs. After UnionPay cards are accepted by over 40,000 merchants under the company, cardholders not only can make payments with UnionPay cards in restaurants, hotels, shopping malls and scenic spots, but also can rent cars with UnionPay cards.
Cai Jianbo, CEO of UnionPay International, said, “Over the recent years, more and more Chinese people have come to Israel for travel or investment. The purpose for launching UnionPay card service in Israel is to follow Chinese people’s new trend of going out and timely provide them with high-quality and efficient UnionPay card payment services. We have been committed to continuously expanding UnionPay card acceptance network overseas and improving card-using services. Our network coverage is being extended from Chinese tourists’ major destinations for outbound travels to more areas to better serve our cardholders both at home and abroad.”
Currently, UnionPay card services have been launched in 11 countries and regions in the Middle East, including the UAE, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Turkey, Oman, Yemen, Iraq and Israel. Among those places, UnionPay cards have been accepted by all the POS terminals and 50% of the ATMs in the UAE. UnionPay cards have also realized 100% acceptance by ATMs in Jordan.
Israel is very optimistic about the Chinese tourist market. The Israel Ministry of Tourism announced its effort earlier to simplify the group visa application procedures for Chinese tourists traveling to Israel. To attract more Chinese tourists, the time needed for outbound visa application has, since January 5 of this year, been greatly reduced to 5 working days from the original 10 working days. According to the statistics of the ministry, by the end of last November, the number of Chinese tourists traveling to Israel in 2014 had increased by more than 30% year on year.
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