swap3 Nov 2012 23:51
For immediate release: 0700hrs 23 May 2012
MoneySwap Plc
("MoneySwap", the "Group" or the "Company")
MoneySwap appointed as China UnionPay Point of Sales Merchant Acquirer for Europe
MoneySwap Plc (AIM:SWAP), the Asia focused prepaid card and online money services business, is pleased to announce that it has signed an agreement with China UnionPay ("UnionPay") to act as an overseas business acquirer for the UnionPay Point of Sales ("POS") programme (the "Agreement").
UnionPay is the dominant card issuer in China and a leading bankcard brand in the world, with card acceptance in over 125 countries and regions outside of China. UnionPay's POS programme provides a secure, convenient and efficient point of sales payment system that can accept UnionPay cards. Under the Agreement, MoneySwap will be responsible for cooperating with UnionPay to expandthe POS business in Europe by signing up and managing merchants.The Directors believe that by becoming a UnionPay POS merchant acquirer, MoneySwap will be able to facilitate the purchase of goods and services by Chinese tourists, students and business people travelling to Europe.
A report by the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies titled "How the rise of Chinese tourism will change the face of the European travel industry", published in October 2011 (the "Report"), estimated that the number of Chinese visitors to Europe would increase to 4.5 million by 2015 and to around 8.6 million by 2020. Already in 2010, the Report found that Chinese outbound travellers spent £30.4 billion, equivalent to an average expenditure of £530 per person-visit. The Report expects this figure to rise by around 14.6% in 2011 to reach £34.8 billion.
Against this background of growth, many Chinese travelling abroad have experienced difficulty in paying for goods and services using their UnionPay cards as few of the merchant point of sales card terminals connect to the China UnionPay network. However, the Report found the position to be changing and outbound Chinese tourists have been encouraged by improving financial services for Chinese tourists overseas. In particular, UnionPay cards are now increasingly accepted in European and other destinations with UnionPay's services available in 125 countries and regions besides China. In 2010, UnionPay also entered into new collaborative agreements with shopping centres and duty-free shops in many countriesin Europe. Both Harrods and Selfridges department stores in London have UnionPayterminals installed for Chinese customers and Harrods recently reported a rise of 40% in sales to Chinese customers since the introduction of 75 terminals for Chinese customers in its London stores (source: an article written by Malcolm Moore 2011, 'Chinese tourists bring £200m windfall for London retailers' and published in the Dai