Merchant Solutions inks alliance with China UnionPay

Tags: China UnionPay | Merchant Solutions

Written by Financial Daily

Tuesday, 02 June 2009 10:38

SINGAPORE: In a landmark deal covering multiple Asian markets, Merchant Solutions and Chinese bankcard association China UnionPay (CUP) have announced an alliance that enables thousands of merchants outside China to accept CUP debit and credit cards.

In a statement yesterday, Merchant Solutions said it already enabled merchants in Hong Kong and Macau to accept CUP cards and the new agreement extended these services to Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka.

Merchant Solutions is a joint venture between global electronic payments processor First Data and Standard Chartered Bank.

It equips businesses with point-of-sale (POS) terminals and other products and services to accept card payments. China’s bankcard association CUP’s member banks have issued more than 1.8 billion cards, many of which are now used by the growing number of Chinese people travelling throughout Asia and beyond.

Merchant Solutions CEO and managing director Sean Hesh said: “The deal offers real advantages to merchants using Merchant Solutions’ network. Chinese outbound travel is on the rise and this is having a tremendous impact on our markets around Asia.”

“Cooperation with Merchant Solutions gives Chinese travellers in Asia-Pacific the freedom to access their travel funds when they want, where they want,” said CUP first executive vice-president Jianbo Cai. “It further expands CUP’s card acceptance network abroad, as well as our other services to CUP cardholders.”

According to the statement, research from China’s National Tourism Administration and the National Bureau of Statistics shows an increase in Chinese travelling and spending abroad.

It said they found that more than 40 million Chinese travelled abroad in 2007, rising by 15% in 2008, to 46 million, and the estimated number would top 50 million this year. The research found an overwhelming majority of outbound Chinese travelled within Asia (36.3 million in 2007).

Merchant Solutions said Chinese visitors to Singapore and Malaysia doubled between 2006 and 2008, and trips to India were increasing rapidly.

It said besides spending on hospitality and souvenirs, Chinese travellers were attracted to branded clothing, cosmetics, regional delicacies, digital products and other luxury items less readily available in China.

This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, June 2, 2009.

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Last Updated on Tuesday, 02 June 2009 10:39

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