ANZ Bank POS and ATMs to accept UnionPay cards

ANZ point-of-sale and ATM terminals across New Zealand will begin accepting UnionPay credit and debit cards, the bank announced today.

ANZ will be the first bank in New Zealand to accept UnionPay's tap - go solution QuickPass, across its EFTPOS network. Selected POS terminals will begin to accept QuickPass this week, with the rollout continuing to all eligible merchants over the next 12-18 months.

According to ANZ, UnionPay is the most commonly used payment tool by outbound Chinese people, with 5.6 billion cards in circulation across more than 150 countries. It is also currently the only card network that issues, clears and settles in Chinese Yuan.

ANZ New Zealand CEO David Hisco says acceptance of UnionPay cards at ANZ POS terminals would be welcomed by the growing number of Chinese visitors to New Zealand.

"Every year, the number of Chinese tourists, students and businesspeople travelling to New Zealand grows," he says.

Over the past year international arrivals from China have increased 35%.

"As a super-regional bank operating in 34 markets, we recognised that we needed to expand our card payment options to support customers' cross-border activities, and make the payments process simpler and more convenient for them while they are here,' Hisco explains.

"As China's leading card network, this is a significant step for ANZ and for payments in New Zealand," he says.

This follows-on from a launch of UnionPay card and ATM acceptance by ANZ in Australia during June 2015. According to Hisco, enabling QuickPass into the New Zealand market has laid the groundwork for ANZ to launch into a further 11 countries across the Asia-Pacific region throughout 2016.

"Through comprehensive cooperation with ANZ, UnionPay's acceptance footprint in Australia and New Zealand is substantially improved," explains David Lee, chief co-operation officer for UnionPay International, a subsidiary of China UnionPay.

"We also launched innovative services in conformity with the emerging trend of payment technologies, providing UnionPay cardholders with flexible payment experiences," he says.

"In the future, we will deepen our cooperation with ANZ to promote its network in other Asia-Pacific markets to accept UnionPay cards," adds Lee.

UnionPay card acceptance will be introduced to ANZ EFTPOS terminals and ATMs across 11 Asia Pacific markets from April 2016.