Chinese credit card accepted at Selfridges

Selfridges today became the first department store in Britain to accept China's only debit and credit card brand.

Until now, China Union Pay - the only Chinese bank card to operate as Visa and Mastercard do in Europe - had been accepted by only a few small businesses, making Britain the only major European nation not to welcome it.

Stores on the continent that have adopted CUP, including Galeries Lafayette in Paris, found they doubled sales to Chinese customers within the first year of trading with the system.

Selfridges claims to have seen double-digit growth in sales to Chinese customers each year since 2008. A spokesman for the retailer said: "We are very excited by the CUP system. We have one-year department store exclusivity in the UK."