80% of merchants in Indonesia will be able to accept UnionPay cards next year

(Source: Internet)

It is learnt on August 3 that UnionPay International has signed comprehensive cooperation agreements with the top three Indonesian acquirers to substantially expand its acceptance footprint in the market, and to better support the implementation of the Belt and Road strategy. These three acquirers are BCA, the biggest private bank in Indonesia, and Mandiri and BRI, two major state-owned banks. It is estimated that UnionPay’s acceptance coverage at local merchants will ncrease remarkably from about 40% now to 80% by the end of the next year.

In recent years, the economic and trade contact and personnel exchange between China and Indonesia are growing. The Indonesian islands, especially the Bali Island, are attracting an increasing number of international tourists. At the beginning of this year, the Indonesian government announced its plan to attract 20 million international tourists each year in the next 3 to 4 years. In this context, UnionPay International is improving its payment services in the market. Now, 70% of the local ATMs and about 40% of merchants accept UnionPay cards. In popular destinations, such as Bali Island, UnionPay cards are accepted at over 60% of the merchants.

UnionPay International, by signing agreements with a number of the mainstream institutions in Indonesia, aims to enable much more merchants to accept UnionPay cards. BCA is the biggest acquirer in Indonesia, and has enabled some of its merchants in Djakarta and Bali to accept UnionPay cards previously. Now, it will enable all the rest of its POS terminals to accept UnionPay cards in two years. Mandiri is the biggest state-owned bank and will enable about 300,000 POS terminals to accept the UnionPay cards by the middle of 2017. BRI is also among the top four banks in Indonesia, and will enable over 100,000 POS terminals to accept UnionPay cards by the end of next year. Now, the ATMs of these three institutions accept UnionPay cards for cash withdrawal.

"Indonesia is a significant country concerned in the Belt and Road strategy. We are improving the local UnionPay acceptance environment and promoting the local issuance of UnionPay cards to support the personnel exchange between the two countries." says Cai Jianbo, CEO of UnionPay International. “First, we will enable 95% of the local ATMs and 80% of the merchants to accept UnionPay cards by the end of next year, in order to meet the demand of cardholders visiting Indonesia. Second, we will jointly issue UnionPay cards with Mandiri and BRI next year to offer new payment choices to the local residents. Third, we will actively promote cooperation with the local institutions in chip card standards while taking advantage of our technical standards, so as to promote the development of the local bankcard industry.”

UnionPay cards can be used conveniently in 160 countries and regions around the world, including all the countries and regions in Southeast Asia. In Singapore, almost all ATMs and over 80% of merchants accept UnionPay cards. The ATM acceptance coverage in Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam is all over 90%. Meanwhile, UnionPay cards have been issued in all the 10 ASEAN countries. In 2014, the UnionPay card is issued for the first time by a local bank in Indonesia, Sinarmas, which introduced UnionPay card as its feature product.