UnionPay International has recently concluded a comprehensive cooperation agreement with Banque Populaire, the second largest bank in Morocco. Mr Chen Zhi, Vice Chairman of China UnionPay was delighted to attend the ceremony.
Currently, UnionPay cards are accepted at all POS terminals in Morocco, and ATM coverage is increasing rapidly. As one of the emerging popular destinations for Chinese tourists, Morocco offers visa-free access to Chinese citizens since June 2016. This assisted tremendously in attracting more Chinese tourists, and an increasing number of the local banks and merchants push UnionPay card payment as an important service to Chinese customers. According to statistics from the Moroccan tourism department, the number of Chinese tourists to Morocco grew by about 600% year-on-year in the first half of this year alone. These tourists prefer to use UnionPay cards for shopping, catering, accommodation and entertainment.
According to the agreement with UnionPay International, Banque Populaire will enable its ATM’s in Morocco to accept UnionPay cards, followed by their branches in 10 African countries to launch UnionPay business with the full support of their group processor PCA (Payment Center for Africa). This will extend their cooperation with UnionPay International to local card issuance and online business in addition to card acceptance. Since these ATMs can be found in cities across Morocco, the cooperation will give UnionPay cardholders greater and access to cash withdrawals.
Mr Chen Zhi said, “UnionPay will work closely with Banque Populaire to ensure full acceptance of UnionPay cards in Morocco, in order to support the tourism, economic and cultural exchange, as well as to meet customers’ diverse payment needs”.
Mr Laïdi EL WARDI, General Manager of Retail at Banque Populaire, said, “we are glad to cooperate with UnionPay International. Banque Populaire is ready to promote all of our ATMs and merchants to accept UnionPay cards as soon as possible, and further carry out cooperation in more African countries to enhance our service capacity in the region”.
It is currently convenient to use UnionPay cards in 48 African countries. UnionPay is accepted at about 90% of ATMs and merchants in South Africa, and 90% of POS terminals and over 85% of ATMs in Kenya. UnionPay cards are also issued in Mauritius, Kenya, Seychelles and Congo (Kinshasa). And these Africa-issued UnionPay cards are frequently used in over 50 countries and regions.
