Daily Times

KATHMANDU: SmartChoice Technologies (SCT) Private Limited, the largest electronic payments network in Nepal will issue cobranded chip cards with China’s UnionPay International (UPI) by the end of February.

The cooperation will help foreign tourists and nationals who have UPI cards to make payment in Nepal as well as withdraw money from a total of 72 banks and other financial institutions in Nepal which are members of the SCT, said the SCT on Saturday.

The SCT-UPI cobranded cards holders in Nepal will be able to make payment and withdraw money in 160 countries where 1,000 financial institutions are UPI members, according to the SCT. The UPI is the subsidiary company of China Union Pay.

The SCT said that it plans to issue domestic and international cards in collaboration with UPI. “The domestic cards can be used in Nepal, China, Bhutan and India while international cards can be used in 160 countries where UPI has presence,” said Rabindra Malla, managing director of SCT.

The Nepalese payment company and the UPI had signed memorandum of understanding to issue SCT-UPI cobranded chip cards in August 2015. A delegation of UPI will visit Nepal on February 13 to finalize nitty-gritty on co-branding arrangement with SCT, according to Malla.