Unionpay Exits Kyrgyzstan After Years Of Struggle

(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, October 18. The Chinese payment system UnionPay has completely disappeared from Kyrgyzstan. By the end of June 2025, not a single active card remained in the country-the last two, still in use earlier this year, were removed from the statistics, Trend reports.

UnionPay had attempted to establish itself in Kyrgyzstan since 2014, initially issuing 213 cards and eventually reaching nearly 2,000. However, strong competition from Western and local payment systems prevented it from gaining a sustainable foothold.

UnionPay, founded in 2002 in China, is one of the world's largest payment networks, widely used for bank cards and mobile payments in Asia and increasingly abroad. The system offers international transaction processing, online and offline payment solutions, and has partnerships with numerous banks and merchants globally. Despite its global reach, UnionPay has struggled to compete in markets dominated by established local and Western payment systems.

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