LINK, operator of the UK cash machine network is now connected to the China Unionpay. This means that over 1.8 billion Chinese cards can now be used to obtain cash through all of LINK’s 64,000 cash machines.

The UK Office of National Statistics estimates that 141,000 Chinese tourists visited the UK in 2007, spending an estimated £ 181 million. In addition around 100,000 Chinese students study for more than one year in the UK and each of them is estimated to spend around £ 25,000 per year.

LINK connects almost every cash machine in the UK, both free-to-use and pay-to-use. The LINK network is the busiest ATM transaction switch in the world, processing around 250 million transactions a month and, at its busiest, over one million transactions an hour. The LINK network has 46 members and there are more than 130 million LINK cards in circulation from 36 card issuers.