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Discover Financial Services expects U.S.-based ATM independent sales organizations to benefit from an agreement it made with China Unionpay, the Riverwoods, Ill.-based card network and issuer notes in a recent letter to the National Association of ATM ISOs and Operators. The agreement calls for Discover's Pulse electronic funds transfer network to process ChinaUnionpay card transactions over the Pulse network. Discover signed an agreement with ChinaUnionpay in 2005 to permit the use of China Unionpay's bankcards in the U.S. China Unionpay is China's only national payments network. Because of this agreement, Chinese tourists can pay for purchases with their UnionPay cards. The U.S. Commerce Department expects more than 665,000 Chinese tourists to spend $3.3 billion visiting the U.S. this year. "Pulse financial institutions, ATM owners and merchant participants may benefit from additional ATM and merchant point-of-sale transactions associated with the China Unionpay relationship," Discover wrote in a letter to the ATM ISOs and Operators. The group published the letter in its July newsletter. Pulse accepts China Unionpay cards on its network, and China Unionpay pays $1.10 to ATM acquirers per cash withdrawal, Pulse adds. Merchants in Mainland China have accepted Discover cards since November, 2006.
