UnionPay International announced today that it has reached cooperation with the National Bank of Greece (hereinafter referred to as “NBG”). The two will enable all of NBG’s ATMs and POS terminals to accept UnionPay cards. So far, the top four banks in Greece have all accepted UnionPay. It is expected that by the end of 2017, customers will be able to pay with UnionPay cards at almost all the merchants equipped with POS terminals in Greece. Shi Wenchao, President of China UnionPay, and Leonidas Fragkiadakis, CEO of NBG attended the ceremony.
In recent years, Greece has become a tourist destination favored by Chinese tourists. The Greek tourism sector has taken multiple measures to attract the Chinese tourists. These measures include promoting bilateral communication, holding tourism expo, and encouraging airlines to launch direct flights between China and Greece. More and more local merchants are also accepting UnionPay to attract more customers. In this context, UnionPay International has cooperated with Alpha Bank, Piraeus Bank, and EuroBank, to rapidly expand its acceptance network in the market. At present, 80% of the ATMs and 70% of the merchants in Greece accept UnionPay.
According to this agreement between UnionPay International and NBG, the two will first enable all the ATMs and POS terminals in the NBG network to accept UnionPay. Since most of the POS terminals are at the local accommodation and catering merchants, this cooperation will further improve UnionPay cardholders’ payment experiences. Moreover, NBG is expected to become the first bank that accepts UnionPay contactless payment in Greece. And such acceptance will lay a solid foundation for launching UnionPay innovative products and services in the future.
According to Shi Wenchao, with NBG fully accepting UnionPay, UnionPay International has realized comprehensive cooperation with the major banks in Greece. This ushers in a new phase in terms of the local UnionPay acceptance network, and will provide even better service for cardholders. The two will land the program as soon as possible. Next, UnionPay will continue to give full play to its advantages in network, products and brand to promote all-round cooperation with the mainstream institutions in the Mediterranean, including NBG, and explore more cooperation opportunities in local card issuance, online payment and contactless payment.
Leonidas Fragkiadakis says, he is willing to promote the ATMs and POS terminals in the NBG network to accept UnionPay as soon as possible. He believes that the cooperation between the two sides will provide more convenient and safe payment services to tourists visiting Greece while bring more customers to the local merchants, and thus realize an all-win result.
Now, cardholders are able to use UnionPay cards in 160 countries and regions. More than 36 million merchants and over 2 million ATMs around the world accept UnionPay. UnionPay has expanded its footprint to 39 countries and regions in Europe. Since this year, countries in Northeast Europe and Southern Europe become popular among an increasing number of tourists, and UnionPay International is accelerating the improvement of its acceptance network as well as its service capability in these countries.
About UnionPay International
UnionPay International (UPI) is a subsidiary of China UnionPay focuses on international business. In partnership with more than 1,000 institutions worldwide, UnionPay International has extended its card acceptance to 160 countries and regions globally with issuance in over 40 countries and regions. UnionPay International provides high quality, cost effective and secure cross-border payment services to the world’s largest cardholder base and ensures convenient localized services to a growing number of global UnionPay cardholders and merchants.
For more information about UnionPay International, please visit www.unionpayintl.com, like “UnionPay International” on Facebook, follow “@unionpay_intl” on Twitter, or download its official mobile application by searching “UnionPay International” in Apple’s App Store or Google’s Play Store.
