Pedestrians pass a sign advertising Chinese credit card company UnionPay. AFP
Global payments network UnionPay announced yesterday it has partnered with financial technology solutions provider Mpay to issue UnionPay’s first contactless prepaid card in the market, enabling payments with it for Cambodian merchants with Quick Response (QR) Codes.
According to the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC), the number of active e-wallets in the kingdom jumped 64 percent to 5.22 million in 2019, compared with 2018.
This collaboration is timely because the community of banking and financial sector (BFIs) represented by the Association of Banks in Cambodia (ABC), Cambodia Microfinance Association (CMA) and Cambodian Association of Finance and Technology (CAFT) issued a joint statement this month encouraging more digital and cashless payments to combat the outbreak of the pandemic in the Kingdom.
Because most transactions in the Cambodian market are still in cash, with a large unbanked population, NBC has rolled out several initiatives to increase financial inclusion and promote greater financial mobility in the country.
According to the company, through this comprehensive partnership for both UnionPay issuing and acquiring services, Mpay will offer two types of UnionPay prepaid cards, allowing people to pay easily at merchant point-of-sale (POS) terminals nationwide.
It added Mpay has enabled more than 3,000 merchants with a UnionPay QR code for payment, many of which are small and micro merchants, to make everyday purchases. Some familiar merchant names include E-GetS, NHAM24, LaoDiFang Restaurant, DeYueLou Restaurant, XiaoMi, Cambodia Airways Co Ltd and JC International Airlines.
Leang Chenda, Cambodia country manager for UnionPay International South East Asia, said: “We are pleased to collaborate with strategic and like-minded partners such as Mpay to expand UnionPay’s existing range of card products and payment services to offer our local customers more choices for convenient and safe payment methods. We hope that our partnership with Mpay will also improve financial inclusion by giving the unbanked access to UnionPay prepaid cards, helping them to get access to a whole plethora of banking and payment services.”
Chief Executive Officer of Mpay Sun Lei said: “Mpay has always striven to provide more streamlined and improved payment experiences for our customers to enhance their business performance. Our partnership with UnionPay is a new milestone because UnionPay is not only the world’s largest international payment brand in terms of number of cards issued, but also a global leader for innovative payment services such as QR codes and wallets for payment. We are confident that this partnership will help accelerate the kingdom’s transformation to a cashless society.”
Source: Khmer Times