On December 10, China Unionpay (CUP) and First National Bank officially proclaimed the opening of CUP card merchant acceptance business in South Africa. This is a further progress made by CUP in the African market following that in Egypt last June.
As one of the four largest banks in South Africa, First National Bank have over 700 branches. The bank has more than 35,000 merchants within South Africa, accounting for nearly 31％ of the market share. First National Bank and CUP started trial operation of bankcard acceptance business in April this year, and some CUP cardholders have enjoyed purchase with CUP cards in South Africa.
To kick off the merchant acceptance business in South Africa is a milestone in CUP’s exploration in the southern market of the African Continent. Next, CUP will work with cooperative agencies in South Africa to accelerate the acceptance market development both in depth and width so as to meet as much as possible the needs of CUP cardholders in South Africa.
According to Cai Jianbo, Executive Vice President of CUP, to open CUP card merchant acceptance business in South Africa marks another major progress of CUP in developing its international business. CUP will, apart from improving the domestic acceptance environment, continue to step up cooperation with overseas organizations, so as to provide domestic and overseas cardholders with more and more convenient and safe overseas payment services.
As Karen de Beer, CEO of First National Bank stated, the opening of CUP card acceptance business will benefit not only the Chinese visitors in their card purchasing in South Africa, but also South African merchants by bring more business opportunities, for the CUP logo is the very beckon attracting Chinese shoppers.
Recent years have witnessed very close economic and trade exchanges and people-to-people contacts between China and South Africa. In the first half of 2008, the export of South Africa to China amounted to USD 2,333 million, 9.3% up over the same period of last year, while the import from China totaled USD 4,804 million, an increase of 1.9% over the same period of last year. Presently, China is the largest source of import as well as tourists for South Africa.
To adapt to the needs of China’s social and economic development and the “Going Global” strategy, as well as meet growing card payment demands in overseas business, trip and study, CUP dedicated itself to continued acceleration of its internationalization process as well as active expansion of CUP cards international acceptance network. To swipe cards through CUP channels abroad helps to save currency conversion fees, which account for 1%-2% of the total card swiping amount.
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