UnionPay International, the card payment organisation with the world’s largest cardholder base, today announces that the number of mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) SumUp merchants, which accept UnionPay cards, has increased in the last 12 months reaching a total of 800,000 across Europe.

UnionPay has been working with SumUp, which was founded in 2012 and is one of Global’s leading mPOS companies, since 2017.  As a result of the expansion of the partnership over this period, UnionPay cardholders can now pay for goods and services via EMV and contactless payment methods at merchants based in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Sweden.   

SumUp is currently used by more than two million merchants worldwide and is currently active in 32 countries. It is both EMV and PCI-DSS certified, ensuring that payments are processed in accordance with the highest security standards.  

SumUp’s card readers pair with both Android and iOS-based smartphones to verify payments through the internet and is currently the only mPOS company worldwide that has developed a complete end-to-end payment system in-house. In combination with smartphones, it allows small businesses to accept card payments anytime, anywhere.

With over 8.4 billion cards issued worldwide, UnionPay is not only the widely preferred payment brand for the Chinese, but also for more and more customers outside China. In Europe, UnionPay is now accepted in 40 countries and regions and by more than four million merchants, coverage rate increased to 70% of all the bankcard-accepting merchants in Europe. The partnership between UnionPay International and SumUp enables local SMEs to be well-prepared to welcome tourists from China and other parts of the world when global tourism recovers.

Wei Zhihong, UnionPay International’s Market Director and Head of Europe, said: “We are delighted to have expanded our relationship with SumUp, a truly unique market leader in the payments industry, which has been at the forefront of developing innovative technology that every merchant can use.

Today’s announcement represents yet another step forward in our rapidly expanding global footprint and importantly will enable UnionPay cardholders to more easily and conveniently shop at a much greater number of SumUp’s European merchants. We believe this will be advantageous to UnionPay cardholders, whether Chinese or European, as well as to the European merchants.”