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Standard Bank, UnionPay International ink partnership deal

Kgaogelo Letsebe
By Kgaogelo Letsebe, Portals journalist
Johannesburg, 06 Feb 2018
George Lo of Africa China Banking at Standard Bank and Luping Zhang, General Manager of UnionPay International Africa.
George Lo of Africa China Banking at Standard Bank and Luping Zhang, General Manager of UnionPay International Africa.

The largest African bank by assets - Standard Bank - has inked an agreement with Chinese UnionPay International in a partnership that will see the bank being the first African bank to receive the licence to issue UnionPay cards in South Africa.

UnionPay is a subsidiary of financial services firm China UnionPay. The institution has more than 1 700 institutions worldwide and has enabled card acceptance in 168 countries and regions with issuance in 48 countries and regions. It is also the only interbank network in China that links all the ATMs of all banks throughout the country and is has one of the leading payments systems including mobile and online payments.

The announcement is part of Standard Bank's mission to provide a platform to link African and Chinese clients with China's digital banking and customer knowledge systems. Last year the bank launched the world's first dedicated Africa China Banking Centre in Johannesburg, with earmarked expansions in Kenya, Zambia, Nigeria and Ghana. The centres are to act as a hub for day-to-day banking needs between the two countries.

According to the George Lo, executive head of Africa China Banking at Standard Bank, the partnership will transform and simplify the ability of Chinese to transact in Africa as well as give customers access to the Chinese e-commerce market. "From an African perspective, the agreement with UnionPay provides Africans with direct access to China, including the country's highly developed electronic and mobile transaction platforms. Payment apps are hugely popular in China - with almost all of them being exclusively UnionPay-enabled. This means the partnership's capability will allow Africans with Standard Bank accounts, cards or online payment products to access the full range of payment apps currently used to transact in China," explained Lo.

The bank also envisions it will be able to accept the cards in multiple African markets by the end of 2018, he adds. Standard Bank has a presence in 17 countries in Africa, including Angola, Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya.

In preparation for African expansion, the Chinese firm has appointed Luping Zhang as general manager of UnionPay International Africa.

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