Global payment network UnionPay has partnered with uab bank to enable acceptance of UnionPay Contactless payment at a variety of retail, food & beverage, telecommunication, homeware and other merchants in Myanmar. Beginning with enabling UnionPay Contactless card acceptance at over 500 merchants including Black Canyon Coffee, Yoogane Korean Restaurant, Bench Myanmar, Ananda and Living Square among others, the partnership will pave the way for more merchants in Myanmar to accept UnionPay Contactless payment, and enable local UnionPay Cardholders to enjoy greater ease of payment within the country and around the world.

In recent years, UnionPay International (UPI) has been expanding its footprint rapidly in Myanmar. To accelerate the development of e-payment infrastructure and drive e-payment usage in the country, UPI has partnered with Myanmar Payment Union to adopt the UnionPay chip card standard as Myanmar’s technical standard for card acceptance and issuance in the country, and collaborated with eight Myanmar banks, including uab bank, to issue UnionPay cards. Today, UnionPay is the leading global payment network in Myanmar with the largest number of cards issued in the country.

UnionPay Cardholders holding locally issued cards can already make Contactless payment at 20 million UnionPay Contactless merchants in 42 countries and regions. By making UnionPay Contactless payment available in Myanmar, local UnionPay Cardholders will also be able to make purchases with a simple tap of their UnionPay card at participating local merchants, while UnionPay Cardholders from overseas can enjoy greater convenience with the new Contactless payment option when they visit the country.

“UnionPay International is proud to partner with uab bank to enable UnionPay Contactless payment at leading merchants across Myanmar. With a fast-growing economy and most transactions still in cash today in the country, there is ample room for electronic payments to grow rapidly, to make payments and exchanges more efficient and secure. The UnionPay Contactless payment marks yet another step forward in our strategy to accelerate the development of e-payments in the country, bringing about greater convenience of payment for local consumers and businesses, and fostering a future whereby most transactions would go cashless.” said Wenhui Yang, General Manager, UnionPay International Southeast Asia.

Commenting on the strategic collaboration with UnionPay, MD & CEO of uab bank, Christopher Loh said, “We are delighted to be the first bank in Myanmar to enable the UnionPay Contactless payment for our merchants. This follows our recent successful launch of the EMV certification of our ATM machines for UnionPay that allows UnionPay Cardholders to safely withdraw cash from our uab bank ATMs. We believe the introduction of UnionPay Contactless in Myanmar will benefit both local UnionPay Cardholders and overseas visitors through greater convenience and ease of payment. The launch of UnionPay Contactless payment and this strategic collaboration signifies the joint efforts made by UnionPay and uab bank to innovate and offer mobile payment services that are safe and convenient, coupled with UnionPay leading technology in payment security to safeguard our customers’ funds and information. UnionPay Cardholders regardless of issuing bank can now use their UnionPay cards to make Contactless payments at uab bank merchants.”

In addition to enjoying an enhanced payment experience from UnionPay Contactless payment, local UnionPay Cardholders will be able to participate in the Go-for-Gold campaign for a chance to win a 12-gram gold coin worth 10 Lakhs each week, when they spend at least 30,000 Kyats in a single receipt with their locally-issued UnionPay card. For every 30,000 Kyats spent overseas, UnionPay Cardholders will be entitled to 10 lucky draw chances to win a 12-gram gold coin. Additionally, all participants will be automatically entered into the grand draw for a chance to win a 57-gram gold coin worth 50 Lakhs.

UnionPay’s Go-for-Gold campaigns runs from now until 1st March 2020. To participate, entries should be submitted at www.unionpaygoforgold.com. Winners will be chosen weekly at random and announced on the UnionPay Myanmar Facebook Page.