Kazkommertsbank begins servicing Chinese UnionPay payment cards
ALMATY. Sept 25 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan's Kazkommertsbank has begun servicing Chinese UnionPay International payment cards at its ATMs and POS-terminals, the bank's press office said in a statement on Thursday.
The bank intends to start issuing these cards by early 2015.
An agreement thereof was signed by the top managers of UnionPay International and Kazkommetsbank.
"The issue of the first UnionPay International cards by Kazkommertsbank is planned for early 2015, and the relevant technical certificates and permits have already been obtained. In the future, the UnionPay International payment system will be connected to Kazkommertsbank's in-house ePay Internet-acquiring system," according to the statement.
In early 2014, Kazkommertsbank received a status from the payment system principal member and this enabled it to start technical and program arrangements for accepting and servicing UnionPay International payment cards within its own network of ATMs and POS-terminals.
Kazkommertsbank issues Visa Inc., MasterCard Worldwide and American Express cards, and as of September 1 this year there were over 1.39 million payments cards in circulation issued by the bank.
In the first half of 2014, Kazkommertsbank was ranked 1st by assets among the 38 second-tier banks operating in Kazakhstan.