Russia embraces "Chinese payment"
In Russia, UnionPay cards have a considerable coverage. The picture shows the UnionPay card logo that can be seen everywhere in the mall.
Our reporter Wu Yanshe
Shopping in the mall, a UnionPay card can be done; Take the subway bus and scan the code with Alipay … … China people are familiar with the "swipe card and scan code" payment method, which is rapidly spreading to more and more Russian cities and commercial service systems.
Entering the new year, the news from unionpay international said that before the 2018 fifa world cup Games, the acceptance coverage of UnionPay cards at local ATMs and merchants’ POS terminals will be further increased to 90%. Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Volgograd and other competition host cities will basically realize the barrier-free acceptance of UnionPay cards. Official website Airlines such as Aeroflot and Siberian Airlines also offer UnionPay card payment services.
Almost at the same time, 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 the traditional settlement mode based on UnionPay or the new mobile payment represented by Alipay, "Chinese-style payment" has accelerated its landing in Russia, but also opened up new space for future cooperation between the two sides.
Follow the Chinese people 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, the central department store in Moscow, an all-Russian high-end shopping center near Red Square, launched the Alipay system for the first time. When asked by Russian media about the original intention of this move, Aleksandr Pavlov, CEO of the shopping mall, said so.
China’s huge tourist group and spending power are the important reasons why Russian banking system is willing to cooperate with UnionPay and Alipay, and are also the interests of countless merchants who are willing to access payment systems.
Statistics released recently by the Russian World Without Borders Tourism Association show that in 2017, more than 900,000 "visa-free" tourists from China visited, an increase of 18% over the previous year. It is estimated that during the 2018 World Cup, there will be at least 100,000 Russian tourists visiting China. According to the statistics of the Russian Embassy in China, there are more than 30,000 students studying in China and Russia, and in recent years, the number of personnel exchanges between China and Russia has exceeded 3 million.
"We have noticed that the number of people in 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 tourists from China. In Leningrad Shopping Mall in St Petersburg, another famous tourist city, the proportion of turnover contributed by China consumers is as high as 22%.
In fact, in order to win the market and users, the payment enterprises in China 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 monopoly 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. More than 10 local banks such as Natural Gas Industrial Bank, Agricultural Bank of Russia and Binhai Social Bank have issued nearly 1.3 million UnionPay cards. In July, 2017, unionpay international and Russian National Payment Card Company realized card issuing cooperation. MIR cards, which were originally used only in Russia, were expanded to more than 160 countries and regions covered by UnionPay network, greatly improving the convenience of Russian residents in using cards across borders.
The Belt and Road Initiative creates more opportunities.
There are some backgrounds for Russia to accelerate the introduction of "Chinese payment".
Take UnionPay as an example, it entered the Russian market in 2006, but the explosive growth was mainly after 2014. 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 banks in Russia. 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 cards issued by UnionPay in the local area 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, with the promotion of policy communication, facility 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, there is a need 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, the second largest bank in Russia, also opened its merchants to accept UnionPay cards on the basis of realizing all available UnionPay cards at ATMs. In 2017 alone, the number of merchants and ATMs accepting UnionPay cards in Russia has more than doubled, reaching a total of 630,000 merchants and 100,000 ATMs. In countries and regions along the Belt and Road, more than 50 UnionPay cards have been used.
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 accelerated. Not only are there new mobile payment enterprises represented by Alipay and WeChat, but even traditional cross-border payment institutions such as UnionPay have also introduced mobile payment methods such as "China Unionpay Quick Pass", which has developed rapidly and been widely used, making it difficult for European and American countries to reach. In Europe, America, Southeast Asia and other countries and regions, Alipay alone has access to more than 120,000 overseas offline merchants, supporting 18 kinds of foreign currency settlement. When German youth Alfred wrote to the President "I hope to bring Alipay back to Germany" and China’s popular mobile applications were localized overseas, "Indian Alipay" and "Philippine WeChat Payment" were born. Russia, eager for financial innovation, hoped to achieve "overtaking in corners" through China’s mature cashless payment technology and experience.
Overseas stories have just begun.
In the face of the expansion of "Chinese payment" in Russia, both unionpay international and Alipay, the relevant person in charge invariably stressed when interviewed by this reporter, "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, in November 2015, the Laos National Bank Card Payment System project, which was jointly built by UnionPay, China National 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 industry standard in Thailand, 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 the Asian Payment Alliance (APN), and signed an authorization cooperation agreement for chip card standards with seven member institutions — — This means that the mainstream switching 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 realizes the "going out" of technology, products, services and brands by participating in the construction of payment infrastructure in overseas markets and the docking and interconnection of technical standards systems, and improves the right to speak on modern payment standards.
Another trend of the "story" is that it may trigger a "peripheral revolution" brought about by financial technology innovation in the Internet era. Take Alipay as an example. When China consumers download Alipay apps from their mobile phones, they will automatically switch to overseas versions when they come overseas, which not only has the function of "wallet", but also provides a lot of "outbound" services, including information on eating, drinking and having fun in the local area, ticket purchase for scenic spots, preferential treatment for "nearby" merchants and so on. As Bogdahn Zarozhne, the head of Alipay in Russia, said, "We provide more than just payment tools, but also hope to create a lifestyle-changing application."
It can be expected 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-style 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. (Reporter Wu Yan Zhang Xiaodong)
(Moscow, January 15 th)
People’s Daily (January 16, 2018, 03 edition)