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Sinarmas, UnionPay teaming up
Publicly listed PT Bank Sinarmas (BSIM) has teamed up with UnionPay International (UPI), Chinaâs banking card association, for the issuance of its debit card, Bank Sinarmas UnionPay
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ublicly listed PT Bank Sinarmas (BSIM) has teamed up with UnionPay International (UPI), China's banking card association, for the issuance of its debit card, Bank Sinarmas UnionPay.
The new debit card aims to make it easy for Indonesian customers to withdraw money in China. It also targets the growing number of Chinese people visiting Indonesia.
With the debit card, customers can withdraw cash from local ATMs and conduct transactions on UnionPay-based electronic data capture (EDC) machines across the archipelago.
This partnership makes Bank Sinarmas the first private bank in Indonesia to issue UnionPay debit cards.
Bank Sinarmas president director Freenyan Liwang said that the bank was aiming to capture 200,000 new clients for a total of Rp 500 billion (US$42.78 million) in transactions in their partnership with UnionPay.
'We hope to attract 200,000 new debit cardholders by the end of the program's first year in 2015. We hope to bring in at least 100,000 new customers,' Freenyan said on Monday.
He said Bank Sinarmas aimed to attract the highly mobile and affluent, such as tourists from China who often chose Bali as their preferred holiday or business destination. 'There are an estimated 40,000 Chinese tourists coming to Indonesia this year, with a projected 2 million in 2015,' he said.
The debit card can be used on payment service networks such as ALTO, ATM Bersama and Prima.
The Bank Sinarmas-UnionPay partnership is set to issue two types of debit cards starting Monday: the Gold card and the Diamond card, the latter allowing cardholders to enjoy VVIP facilities at 700 airport lounges worldwide.
UnionPay chief business development officer Wang Lixin welcomed the partnership and acknowledged its strategic worth for both parties.
'We know that trade relations between Indonesia and China have grown exponentially in the last few years, so we are launching the debit cards to further strengthen this bond,' he said during the grand launching event on Monday, which was also attended by the Chinese Ambassador to Indonesia Xie Feng.
UnionPay issues debit and credit cards in more than 30 countries, and has the world's second-most cardholders, with 4.3 trillion cards currently in circulation.
