Ukraine welcomes its first cobadged PROSTIR-UnionPay card. Opting for this card, holders can use it for payments not only in Ukraine with a network of more than 350,000 POS-terminals, but also in 178 other countries. This also covers on-line payments and ATM withdrawals.
Active cooperation between PROSTIR NPS and UnionPay international made this possible. The first bank to become a partner to this project is Ukrgasbank JSB.
The co-badged card combines technologies and advantages of two payment systems, PROSTIR and UnionPay.
An extended network accepting UnionPay cards globally provides all the benefits to cardholders, such as promotional sales and discounts from UnionPay in retail networks in different countries that are now available to Ukrainians. Additional advantage for users of co-badged cards is a 100% acceptance in China, which means over 27 million points of sale and 1.1 million ATMs.
Issue of co-badged cards will favor Ukrainian banks, since this will expand the product range and optimize costs, among other things due to cheaper card servicing, since all card transactions in Ukraine are processed according to PROSTIR rules and tariffs.
Both payment systems comprehend mutual benefits of such joint project. For the national payment system this means expanding the PROSTIR card acceptance network and a new stage of the system’s evolution.
"Today Ukraine launches the first co-badged card and we believe that this is just the beginning of a big and successful undertaking. We are certain that advancing competition on the payment market improves quality of financial services, reduces prices for the final consumer, and promotes cutting-edge technologies," noted Oleksii Shaban, Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
UnionPay International is a wholly owned subsidiary of China UnionPay intended for expanding and supporting UnionPay global business. UnionPay International has over 2,300 partners worldwide, issues cards in 61 countries and is an acquirer in 179 countries.
UnionPay International provides high-quality services, economically efficient, and safe payment services for the biggest pool of card holders.
In November 2018, UnionPay International came on the Ukrainian market and became the fourth international card payment system in Ukraine with a nonresident payment organization. The payment system began actively cooperating with Ukrainian banks in late 2019.
PROSTIR NPS is the domestic card payment system set up by the NBU.
The system’s product is a payment card (with a contactless chip, a magnetic stripe) accepted by 98% of the retail POS network in Ukraine and provides Internet payments, p2p transfers, as well as ATM withdrawals.
Today, the system accounts for 54 participants. The total number of PROSTIR payment cards in the system is over 600,000 cards.