UnionPay is leaving: only two cards from the Chinese payment system remain in Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan has almost completely lost the presence of the Chinese international payment system UnionPay International. As of March 31, 2025, only two UnionPay cards remained in circulation in the country. For comparison, a year earlier there were over 20,000.

Against the backdrop of the growth of other payment systems, UnionPay has literally disappeared from the Kyrgyz market.

While in 2024 (as of March 31), there were 20,353 UnionPay cards in the country with a market share of 0.3% and another 4,900 Elkart-UPI cards (market share of 0.1%), in the first quarter of 2025, there were only two. This is the most rapid decline among all payment systems operating in the country.

Meanwhile, the bank card market in Kyrgyzstan continues to grow rapidly. The total number of cards in circulation reached 9.8 million, an increase of 31.4% over the year. Most of the cards issued belong to the international Visa system — 5.9 million, accounting for more than 60% of the total volume. The national Elkart system is also strengthening its position, with 3.7 million cards already in circulation.

Even the Zolotaya Korona system has remained with almost 85,000 cards.

Possible reasons for the disappearance of UnionPay cards may be the withdrawal from co-branding with Elkart and limited distribution in retail outlets. Interestingly, UnionPay was previously considered one of the possible alternatives to Western payment giants.

We would like to add that the first UnionPay cards appeared in Kyrgyzstan in 2014, with 213 cards in circulation at that time.