In the new year, the news from unionpay international said: Before the 20 18 World Cup in Russia, the acceptance coverage of UnionPay cards at local ATMs and merchant POS terminals will be further increased to 90%. Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Volgograd and other host cities will basically realize the barrier-free acceptance of UnionPay cards. Official website airlines such as Aeroflot and Siberian Airlines also provide UnionPay card payment services.
Almost at the same time, the two large supermarket chains "Lianta" and "Dixie", which ranked third and fourth in Russian turnover, also said that they would officially launch Alipay system around the Spring Festival in China. Previously, Moscow's bus, subway, paid bicycles and other urban transportation systems have announced the introduction of Alipay, which can scan the code to purchase tickets.
Whether it is based on the traditional settlement mode of UnionPay or the new mobile payment represented by Alipay, "Chinese payment" has accelerated its landing in Russia and opened up new space for future cooperation between the two parties.
Follow the people of China in striding out to sea.
"It was our idea to accept Alipay. You know, this is one of the most popular payment methods in China. " In July last year, Moscow Central Department Store, an all-Russian high-end shopping mall near Red Square, launched Alipay system for the first time. When asked by Russian media about the original intention of this move, Aleksandr Pavlov, CEO of the shopping center, said so.
China's huge tourist groups and spending power are important reasons why the Russian banking system is willing to cooperate with UnionPay and Alipay, and are also the interests of countless merchants who are willing to access the payment system.
According to the statistics released by the Russian "World Without Borders" Tourism Association recently, in 20 17, the number of visa-free tourists from China exceeded 900,000, an increase of 18% over the previous year. It is estimated that at least 654.38 million Russian tourists will visit China during the 20 18 World Cup. According to the statistics of the Russian Embassy in China, there are more than 30,000 international students in China and Russia, and in recent years, there have been more than 3 million personnel exchanges between China and Russia.
"We have noticed that the population of China continues to grow." Alexei, director of the Commercial Department of the Russian Foreign Trade Bank, said, "The potential size of this market will reach 300 billion rubles (about 33 billion yuan) per year."
To support this view, Pavlov revealed that 9% of the turnover of Moscow Central Department Store comes from China tourists. In Leningrad Shopping Mall in St. Petersburg, another famous tourist city, the turnover contributed by China consumers is as high as 22%.
In fact, in order to win the market and users, domestic payment companies are also trying their best, including "subsidies" and "concessions". Duty-free shops and shopping malls in major airports in Russia often post preferential information similar to "15% discount on UnionPay cards", and Alipay also attracts users with "the best exchange rate". In the Gagarin Square business district in Moscow, there are many shops, and more than 80% of them can be marked with UnionPay cards. In a brand-exclusive shoe store, salesgirl valentina told reporters that the store has been paying with UnionPay for 9 years.
More and more local Russian residents have also started to apply for and use UnionPay cards. Many local banks such as Natural Gas Industrial Bank, Agricultural Bank of Russia and Binhai Social Bank 10 have issued nearly10.3 million unionpay cards. 2065438+July 2007, unionpay international and Russian National Payment Card Company realized card issuing cooperation. MIR card, which was originally used only in Russia, has been extended to more than 60 countries and regions covered by UnionPay network, greatly improving the convenience of Russian residents to use the card across the border.
The Belt and Road Initiative has created more opportunities.
There are some backgrounds for Russian to accelerate the introduction of "China Payment".
Take UnionPay as an example, it entered the Russian market in 2006, but the explosive growth was mainly after 20 14. That year, Visa and MasterCard, which dominated the Russian credit card market due to sanctions from the United States and Europe, stopped providing payment services in many Russian banks. Therefore, the Russian government is determined to establish its own payment system and realize a diversified settlement system. At that time, China and Russia had established a comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation, and China UnionPay, as one of the world-renowned international credit cards, received more attention. According to Fan Jiguang, the representative of China UnionPay in Russia, in the following three years, the number of local cards issued by UnionPay surged to 2 million.
The construction of the "Belt and Road" has also created greater opportunities for Sino-Russian financial cooperation.
On the one hand, driven by policy communication, facilities connectivity, smooth trade, financial intermediation and popular support, the payment of people coming and going in the "Belt and Road" region needs to be smooth and convenient; On the other hand, with Russia as the main radiation source, including Central Asia and CIS countries, it is necessary to improve the modernization level of financial payment, safeguard domestic financial security and reduce the use of cash.
In May last year, the Federal Savings Bank, Russia's largest bank, launched the UnionPay card acceptance business; In August, the Foreign Trade Bank, Russia's second largest bank, opened merchants accepting UnionPay cards on the basis of realizing all available UnionPay cards for ATM machines. In just 20 17 years, the number of merchants and ATMs accepting unionpay cards in Russia has increased by 1 many times, reaching a total of 630,000 merchants and 654.38+10,000 ATMs. More than 50 UnionPay cards have been used in countries and regions along the Belt and Road.
Another important factor is China's outstanding leadership in the field of mobile payment.
In recent years, the globalization of cashless services of mobile payment enterprises in China has been accelerated. Not only have new mobile payment companies represented by Alipay and WeChat emerged, but even traditional cross-border payment institutions such as UnionPay have also launched mobile payment methods such as "China UnionPay Express", which have developed rapidly and are widely used, making it difficult for European and American countries to match. In Europe, America, Southeast Asia and other countries and regions, Alipay alone has accessed more than 1.2 million overseas offline merchants, supporting 1.8 foreign currency settlement. When Alfred, a young German, wrote to the President "I hope to bring Alipay back to Germany" and the popular mobile applications in China were localized overseas, "Indian Alipay" and "Philippine WeChat Payment" were born. Russia, eager for financial innovation, hopes to achieve "overtaking in corners" through China's mature cashless payment technology and experience.
The overseas story has just begun.
In the face of the expansion of "China Payment" in Russia, both unionpay international and Alipay, the relevant responsible persons unanimously stressed in an interview with this reporter that "this is only the first step. The story has just begun. "
In fact, the "story" has already begun in Southeast Asia and other countries and regions.
In Laos, on 20 15, 1 1, the Laos national bank card payment system project jointly built by UnionPay, China Development Bank and Laos Central Bank was launched to help Laos build a national bank card payment system covering the whole territory. In Thailand, after the UnionPay chip card standard became the Thai industry standard, UnionPay provided Thailand with the construction standard of bank card transfer system. UnionPay has also become the sole provider of cross-border chip card standards of Asian Payment Alliance (APN), and has signed authorization cooperation agreements with seven member institutions for chip card standards. This means that the mainstream transit networks in Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and other countries will take the UnionPay chip card standard as the technical standard for accepting and issuing cards.
Russia is an important country along the "Belt and Road" and a key area connecting Central and Eastern Europe and radiating the CIS. The layout of "Chinese-style payment" here not only means that RMB has taken an important step in the internationalization journey, but also realized the "going out" of technology, products, services and brands by participating in the construction of payment infrastructure in overseas markets and the interconnection of technical standards systems, and improved the right to speak of modern payment standards.
Another trend of "story" is that it may trigger a "peripheral revolution" brought by financial technology innovation in the Internet age. Take Alipay as an example. Consumers in China download Alipay apps from their mobile phones, and when they go overseas, they will automatically switch to overseas versions. They not only have the function of "wallet", but also provide a large number of "outbound" services, including local information on eating, drinking and having fun, tickets for scenic spots, and discounts from "nearby" businesses. As Bogdahn Zarozhne, the head of Alipay in Russia, said, "We not only provide payment tools, but also hope to create an application that changes lifestyles."
It can be predicted that with the rapid development of cross-border payment, a new round of cross-border electronic commerce transactions will be promoted rapidly. With the overseas expansion of "Chinese payment", the format of banks, the reconstruction of credit system, the form of money, the security of payment, the construction of e-commerce platform and even the supervision of online payment will also face new challenges.
May Alipay develop better and better abroad.