Portugal’s leading private bank Millennium bcp and China’s leading national electronic payments clearing system UnionPay signed an agreement on Nov 20 to develop their mutual businesses together through a long-term relationship at the Bund Global Financial Summit in Shanghai.

The strategic partnership, initiated by Millennium bcp’s strategic investor Fosun International, will allow Millennium to become the first non-Chinese issuer of UnionPay cards in Europe.

UnionPay currently partners with more than 1,700 institutions around the world, with card acceptance in 162 countries and regions and issued cards in 42 countries and regions. More importantly, as leading bankcard scheme in China, UnionPay allows the growing Chinese international travelers to safely and efficiently perform transactions overseas.

Under the agreement, Millennium bcp will obtain a UnionPay International Membership License, as issuer and acquirer of UnionPay cards in Portugal including other geographies where Millennium bcp and its affiliates are present.

Fosun has been an investor in Millennium bcp since 2016 with 25.16% ownership. Connecting Millennium bcp and UnionPay is another example of Fosun’s global role to help global companies access the booming middle class consumer growth while achieving Fosun’s “going global” strategy of seeking win-win results for both China and their partners.

“This is an important step for Millennium, as it opens the door to a vast and growing market with excellent potential,” said Nuno Amado, Chairman of the Executive Committee of Millennium bcp.  “Not only will we be able to offer our customers in Portugal and in other key markets a new and innovative payment system with increasing acceptance all over the world, but we will also be able to serve international UnionPay customers.”

“This Agreement actively opens up abundant opportunities for Millennium bcp in cross-border financial services and wealth management as well as opening up Portugal to the growing Chinese traveler” said Guo Guangchang, Chairman of Fosun International. “Fosun will also leverage existing financial service enterprises in China, such as ICBC, China UnionPay, and the China-Portugal Fund to help Chinese enterprises seek opportunities and payment cooperation in Europe to lead to mutual benefits among the entities”, Guo added.

“With our acceptance network continuously expanding in Europe, UnionPay International is accelerating the localization of our business here, seeking opportunities to issue cards locally. The issuance of UnionPay cards by Millennium bcp is the first among all European institutions (except for Russia). Our partnership with so influential an institution as Millennium plays an exemplary role in promoting more institutions in Europe to accept and issue UnionPay cards”, said Larry Wang, Vice-President of UnionPay International.

Millennium bcp currently covers countries and regions such as Portugal, Poland, Switzerland, Mozambique, Angola and Macao. Through the cooperation with UnionPay International and Fosun, Millennium bcp will gain competitive advantages and jointly push forward the business’ cooperation in Portugal, Poland and other geographies where Millennium operates.

Millennium bcp and UnionPay International will combine their technical, technological, marketing and financial resources to support the launch of the UnionPay brand and products initially in Portugal and thereafter in the other countries where Millennium bcp has a presence.

The agreement between Millennium bcp and UnionPay International will cover commercial and consumer cards, as well as mobile payment systems.

About Millennium bcp

Founded in 1985, Millennium is Portugal’s largest listed bank, with operations in Poland, Mozambique, Switzerland and Macau. Millennium currently serves more than 5 million customers worldwide.

About Fosun International

Fosun International Limited is a family-focused multinational company that has been listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (00656:HK) since 2007. Founded in 1992, Fosun's total assets exceed RMB500 billion (c.US$75 billion). With its roots in China, and through technology and innovation, Fosun’s mission is to create customer-to-maker (C2M) ecosystems in health, happiness and wealth, providing high-quality products and services for families around the world.

About UnionPay International

In partnership with more than 1700 institutions worldwide, UnionPay International has enabled card acceptance in 162 countries and regions, covering 45 million merchants and 2.5 million ATMs. With more than 6.3 billion cards issued in 42 countries and regions, UnionPay International provides high quality, cost effective and secure cross-border payment services to the world’s largest cardholder base and ensures convenient local services to a growing number of global UnionPay cardholders and merchants. In Europe, UnionPay is accepted at more than 2.3 million merchants across 39 countries and regions. The UnionPay-accepting merchants in Europe take up half of all the merchants that accept bankcards.