Russia’s MDM Bank has partnered with Chinese payment network China UnionPay (CUP) to issue CUP-branded cards. Other Russian banks, including Alfa Bank, Gazprombank and Bank of Moscow are also preparing to start implementing and issuing CUP card capability, according to Russian press reports.
Russia is forging closer ties with China UnionPay
MDM Bank has also stated that CUP cardholders will be able withdraw cash at MDM Bank’s ATMs once technical implementation of CUP processes has been completed. Fan Zhiguang, CUP’s Russian representative, recently predicted that the number of CUP cards in Russia will reach 2 million by 2016.
Meanwhile, CUP and Japanese bank card consortium JCB are planning to resume activities in co-branding with the operator of the recently-announced Russian national payment system, which has been mandated by President Vladimir Putin after Visa and MasterCard stopped processing cards of some country’s banks due to sanctions imposed on the country by the US.
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