By FintechNews staff
Spanish fintech Pecunpay, specialized in innovative payment and E-money processing solutions, and UnionPay, the card scheme with the world’s largest cardholder base, have signed a strategic partnership that sees Pecunpay become the first Spanish issuer in Europe to issue UnionPay cards in Spain.
Under the agreement, Pecunpay has been granted a UnionPay International Membership License, allowing the company to issue UnionPay cards in Spain and across the SEPA zone. The agreement covers commercial products, consumer and corporate cards, as well as mobile payment systems.
Pecunpay and UnionPay International will combine their technological, marketing and financial resources to support the launch of the UnionPay products initially in Spain and thereafter in other countries.
As the leading bankcard scheme in China, UnionPay has enabled the growing number of Chinese international travelers to perform transactions overseas safely and efficiently.
In Europe, UnionPay is now accepted by more than four million merchants in around 40 countries and regions, covering more than 70% of all the bankcard-accepting merchants in Europe. In Spain, UnionPay is accepted at all local ATMs and 92% of merchants that accept cards. UnionPay’s rapidly expanding acceptance network across Europe has paved the way for local card issuance in Spain.
Last month, UnionPay reached an agreement with European payment services provider Nets that allows UnionPay to expand its contactless acceptance throughout the Nordic region to more than 100,000 point-of-sale (POS) terminals in Denmark, Sweden and Norway and advance the acceptance of UnionPay to more than 6,000 ATMs in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland.
