The National Payment System Ukrainian Payment Area PROSTIR (hereinafter, PROSTIR) and UnionPay International, the biggest international payment system in the world in terms of payment cards issued, have entered into an agreement for issuing co-badged cards. The respective agreement was signed today in Beijing by CEO of UnionPay International Cai Jianbo and Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Yakiv Smolii. China UnionPay Chairman Shao Fujun and President of China UnionPay Shi Wenchao also attended the solemn event.
In November, UnionPay International came on the Ukrainian market and became the fourth international card payment system in Ukraine with a nonresident payment organization.
Thanks to a wide UnionPay’s global card acceptance network, users of co-badged cards under the brands PROSTIR and UnionPay will be able to pay for goods and services, as well as withdraw funds in ATMs not only in Ukraine, but practically all over the world.
This is the first co-badged project in the history of PROSTIR. The agreement does not prescribe any financial liabilities to the parties, the purpose of the agreement is to develop products of both payment systems. The issue of PROSTIR and UnionPay co-badged cards will start after reaching direct agreements with interested issuing banks.
“We take pride in achievements of our national payment system, which can compete with international payment systems and is a sought partner for joint projects of the global scale,” noted Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Yakiv Smolii.
He added that this project will foster further development and popularization of PROSTIR and expand technological features of the Ukrainian system’s cards and offer new beneficial products.
“We consider the agreement for issuing co-badged cards with UnionPay International beneficial for both parties. The Chinese payment system will promptly initiate issue of payment cards in Ukraine available for use throughout the entire payment infrastructure in our country and provide the national payment system with the functionality for cross-border transactions,” said Yakiv Smolii.
Chairman of China UnionPay Shao Fujun noted that demand for cross-border payments between Ukraine and China grows. This local card issuance is realized through an innovative cooperation model, which will offer support to the bilateral exchanges between China and Ukraine. UnionPay is continuously upgrading its global service capabilities. In the future, it will integrate the market edges of PROSTIR, extend its technological potential in Ukraine, and explore innovative business cooperation such as UnionPay mobile payment to provide local residents with safe, efficient and diversified payment services. said the Chairman.
The NBU believes that UnionPay International operation in Ukraine will foster competition, improve quality of financial services, push the development of innovative technologies on the payment market and create conditions for new investments into the country’s economy.
For reference
Co-badged cards are payment cards that that combine payment technologies and logos of two payment systems and are accepted in the payment infrastructure of these systems, which allows you to significantly expand the network usage of such a compatible product.
UnionPay International is a subsidiary of China UnionPay. With over 2000 partnering financial institutions globally, UnionPay International offers cards to pay for goods, services and cash withdrawal in 171 countries and regions. UnionPay cards are issued by 51 countries and regions worldwide.
PROSTIR is the national retail payment system established by the NBU that provides card settlements on the territory of Ukraine.
At present, the systems covers Ukrposhta postal operator and 50 banks.
The total number of payment cards in the system is more than 600 thousand pieces.
In 2017, a total of 10.7 million operations amounting to UAH 16.3 billion were transacted with PROSTIR cards.
Over the past few years PROSTIR has considerably expanded its own admission network – today the infrastructure of accepting payment cards of the national payment system is almost 95% of the of the total POS network in Ukraine.