The number of banks issuing cards of the Chinese UnionPay payment system  in Russia has grown to ten. At the same time, demand for UnionPay remains booming.

Kommersant writes that if before the sanctions, the volume of issue of the cards of this system in the country was estimated at 50 thousand pieces, now, the most conservative estimates of experts show that it reaches 500 thousand pieces. At the same time, a significant share of cards issued recently are virtual – designed for online payments for goods and services.

Against the backdrop of rush demand, the cost of issuing and maintaining UnionPay cards already ranges from several thousand to more than 10 thousand rubles a year.



However, as evidenced by numerous complaints in social networks and specialized forums, the card does not always fulfill its tasks.

In the current situation, only a few managed to physically test UnionPay abroad, and the reviews differ. In the United States the card was almost never accepted anywhere, one of its holders complains, although such problems are not yet known in other countries.

More so, it is often not possible to pay for purchases on the Internet with a UnionPay card. Banks do not voice the existence of a problem, but in the call centers, Kommersant contacted with, they did not hide the fact that the payment problems are widely spread.

In informal conversations, bankers say that the problem is in foreign online stores, which, against the backdrop of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, decided simply not to serve the Russians, although sanctions do not provide for this.

Dmitry Vishnyakov, an independent expert of payment card market, says the possible restrictions in such situations are probably related to a simple technological solution – instead of sorting out whether the bank that issued the card is under sanctions or not, stores prefer to block the entire country. But, as the expert emphasizes, according to the rules of the payment system, acquiring banks do not have the right to discriminate a card by the country of issue.

Maria Mikhailova, CEO of the National Payment Association, notes that UnionPay itself could influence the situation.

“The main task of any payment system is to ensure that its participants comply with uniform rules and principles for serving all cardholders of the system. International payment systems have built-in mechanisms for monitoring the quality of operation of infrastructure for many years. It is the responsibility of the payment system to ensure that the acquirer accepts all cards of the payment system,” she stressed.

However, as Kommersant notes, UnionPay seems to prefer not to interfere into the situation, the payment system did not respond to the publication’s inquiry.

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