Two Hundred Thousand Merchants in Russia Accept Unionpay Mobile Quickpass

Tap-and-go with mobile phones at merchants on the Red Square, purchase or top up transportation cards with UnionPay cards at the subway stations in Moscow and St. Petersburg, buying flight tickets via UnionPay Online Payment at the official website of Aeroflot… With the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, UnionPay is offering convenient and safe payment service to tourists visiting Russia. It is learnt that UnionPay will be accepted at over 85% of ATMs and POS terminals in Russia, half of which will support UnionPay mobile QuickPass.

According to the data issued by Russia Tourism, an increasing number of Chinese tourists are visiting Russia. In the first half of 2017, the Chinese tourists to Russia grew by 21%, increasing to 552,000. Moscow and St. Petersburg are the two most popular destinations. With this trend, more and more local merchants in Russia are endeavoring to create a friendly travelling environment for Chinese tourists, through offering Chinese-speaking tour guides and assistants, as well as accepting UnionPay cards.

Currently, the four top banks in Russia have all launched UnionPay business. In this May, in particular, the largest bank in Russia, Sberbank, started accepting UnionPay cards, substantially improved customers’ payment experiences. The first half of this year alone, 140,000 more merchants and 55,000 more ATMs in Russia are enabled to accept UnionPay, increasing the total number of UnionPay-accepting POS terminals and merchants in Russia to 500,000 and 90,000 respectively. Recently, UnionPay cardholders are able to buy or top up transportation cards at subway stations in Moscow and St. Petersburg with UnionPay cards.

UnionPay Mobile QuickPass becomes a new highlight of UnionPay services in Russia. Cardholders can now tap-and-go with mobile phones at Azbuka Vkusa, Media Markt, KFC, Macdonald’s and Burger King. UnionPay Mobile QuickPass is now accepted at the POS terminals of 200,000 local merchants, covering supermarkets, restaurants, gas stations. The number of QuickPass-accepting POS terminals will go on increasing.

Moreover, many merchants in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Vladivostok are offering exclusive privileges for UnionPay cardholders. These merchants include airport duty-free shops, hotels, restaurants, entertainment entertainments, painted eggshells museum, and museums on Arbat Street of Moscow. For instance, Café Pushkin, known as one of the “Top 25 Restaurants in Europe”, is offering UnionPay cardholders 5%-off discount.

In Russia, UnionPay is not only usable but preferable, and more local residents are signing up for UnionPay cards. Over the past year and a half, UnionPay cards issued in Russia has rapidly increased from 400,000 to 1,000,000, and the transaction volume of these cards in Russia grew by about 5 times. UnionPay cards are becoming the daily payment method of more and more Russian residents. In this July, UnionPay International reached a card-issuance agreement with NSPK, realizing the acceptance of MIR cards, which could only be used in Russia previously, in the UnionPay network across over 160 countries and regions. So far, Rosselkhozbank, a member of NSPK, has issued the first UnionPay-MIR debit card.