Bir Partners with UnionPay to Expand Card Acceptance in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan's Bir ecosystem has entered a partnership with UnionPay International, the global payments arm of China's UnionPay, to expand acceptance of UnionPay-branded cards throughout the country. The first stage of the deployment is now operational, allowing UnionPay cardholders to complete online purchases at over 1,000 merchants and withdraw cash from roughly 1,300 Birbank ATMs.

The subsequent phase will introduce acceptance across Birbank's point-of-sale acquiring infrastructure, supporting contactless and chip transactions at brick-and-mortar merchant sites. Birbank users will additionally be able to transfer funds directly to UnionPay cards.

When the complete implementation is finished, Bir expects to handle UnionPay transactions across all major acquiring channels it manages: ATMs, e-commerce platforms, POS terminals, and mobile POS devices. The firm characterised this as one of the broadest international acquiring setups in Azerbaijan.

Jalal Orujov, chief executive of payments at Bir, described the tie-up as part of a wider plan to link Azerbaijan's payment infrastructure with prominent global networks.

By enabling UnionPay acceptance across our acquiring network, we are making Azerbaijan more accessible for international visitors while helping local businesses serve customers from around the world with greater convenience

Wang Lixin, chief executive of UnionPay International, highlighted the cross-border aspect. The organisation views the arrangement as a move toward reinforcing payment links between Azerbaijan and Asia, aimed at visitors involved in travel, trade, and commerce.

The Bir ecosystem launched in 2025 and now serves more than five million users. It consolidates Birbank, the Birmarket e-commerce site, Milliön payment terminals, and the m10 e-wallet application under one brand. Existing partnerships include Trendyol marketplace and BakıKart, the transportation payment system for Baku.

UnionPay International runs one of the world's largest card acceptance networks by cardholder volume, with especially high penetration in China and markets with substantial Chinese outbound tourism and trade activity. Its push into smaller, strategically located economies such as Azerbaijan aligns with a pattern of expanding acceptance infrastructure along the Belt and Road corridor and into transit hubs connecting Asia and Europe.

Azerbaijan sits on the Southern Corridor trade route and has been developing its infrastructure and tourism industry as a transit economy. That positioning lends the UnionPay partnership commercial rationale beyond domestic card issuance: the main near-term beneficiaries are inbound travellers rather than local cardholders, and the merchant benefit lies in capturing expenditure that might otherwise be declined or settled in cash.

For Bir, the partnership illustrates the acquiring capabilities of a relatively new ecosystem. Constructing multi-network acquiring infrastructure at the rate Bir outlines requires both technical certification work with each card scheme and regulatory adherence to the Central Bank of Azerbaijan, which oversees payment services domestically.

The phased rollout structure indicates that certification for the POS channel remains in progress, and no specific timeline for full completion was disclosed. The thoroughness and pace of that final stage will decide whether Bir can substantiate the acquiring reach it has outlined.