Acceptance: Elavon-CUP Alliance
- The multinational acquirer Elavon has signed a binding agreement with the Chinese card scheme China UnionPay (CUP). This partnership aims at allowing acceptance of CUP cards at Elavon’s merchants in the United States, in Canada and in Europe.
- This alliance should later on be expanded to South American countries.
- Through this partnership, CUP accesses Elavon’s worldwide network of merchants. Elavon has been founded by the Bank of Ireland (BoI) in 2000 as EuroConex; it has been a subsidiary of US Bancorp since 2004. It soon positioned itself on European cross-border acquiring. Through its integration in US Bancorp, it managed to expand in North America.
- It now enters yet another strong potential market (2.6 billion CUP cards are now in circulation). It can benefit from the significant geographical mobility of the Chinese population, which has become one of the most dynamic touristic segments, especially in North America and Europe. According to MasterCard’s assessments, the increase in the number of CUP cards and their average basket (+11% and +14% respectively) should enable the Chinese market to outrun the US one by 2020.