Azerbaijan’s Bir ecosystem has partnered with UnionPay International, the global payments subsidiary of China’s UnionPay, that materially widens acceptance of UnionPay-branded cards across the country. The first phase of the rollout is already live, giving UnionPay cardholders access to online checkout at more than 1,000 merchants and cash withdrawal at approximately 1,300 Birbank ATMs.
The next phase will extend acceptance into Birbank’s point-of-sale acquiring network, covering contactless and chip payments at physical merchant locations. Birbank users will also gain the ability to send money directly to UnionPay cards. Once the full rollout is complete, Bir says it will support UnionPay across every major acquiring channel it operates: ATMs, e-commerce, POS terminals and mobile POS devices. The company described that as one of the most comprehensive international acquiring infrastructures in Azerbaijan.
The deal
Jalal Orujov, chief executive of payments at Bir, said the partnership is part of a broader strategy to connect Azerbaijan’s payment infrastructure to leading 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,” he said.
Wang Lixin, chief executive of UnionPay International, emphasised the cross-border dimension. The company sees the agreement as a step in strengthening payment connectivity between Azerbaijan and Asia, targeting visitors engaged in travel, trade and commerce.
The Bir ecosystem was launched in 2025 and currently reaches more than five million users. It groups Birbank, the Birmarket e-commerce platform, Milliön payment terminals and the m10 e-wallet application under a single brand, and holds existing partnerships with Trendyol marketplace and BakıKart, the transportation payment solution for Baku.
Market context
UnionPay International operates one of the largest card acceptance networks globally by cardholder count, with particular density in China and across markets with significant Chinese outbound tourism and trade flows. Its expansion into smaller, strategically positioned economies such as Azerbaijan fits a pattern of extending acceptance infrastructure along the Belt and Road corridor and into transit hubs linking Asia with Europe.
Azerbaijan occupies a position on the Southern Corridor trade route and has been building its infrastructure and tourism sector as a transit economy. That context gives the UnionPay partnership commercial logic beyond domestic card issuance: the primary near-term beneficiaries are inbound visitors rather than local cardholders, and the merchant value is in capturing spending that would otherwise be declined or handled in cash.
For Bir, the partnership demonstrates the acquiring depth of a relatively young ecosystem. Building multi-network acquiring infrastructure at the pace Bir describes requires both technical certification work with each card scheme and regulatory compliance with the Central Bank of Azerbaijan, which governs payment services in the country. The phased rollout structure suggests that certification work is still under way for the POS channel, and the timeline for full completion was not specified. The completeness and speed of that final phase will determine whether Bir can credibly claim the acquiring coverage it has outlined.
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