China's two largest mobile payment services, Ant Group's Alipay and Tencent Holdings' Weixin Pay , have adopted a new cross-border payment system designed to facilitate cashless transactions made by foreigners in the country.
Alipay, along with Ant Group's overseas spin-off Ant International, and Weixin Pay said in separate statements on Wednesday that they were expanding support for foreign e-wallets through China's Cross-border Interconnection Payment Gateway scheme.
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Launched by the People's Bank of China and the Payment and Clearing Association of China this year, the new system aimed to improve payment convenience for foreign visitors, Lu Lei, deputy governor at the central bank, said at an industry forum on Tuesday, according to state media.
The system began its trial run at the end of July and had already processed nearly 2 million transactions, reaching 427 million yuan (US$60 million) as of last week, Lu said.
Alipay now supported seven international bank cards and 31 mobile wallets from 12 countries and regions, including recent additions from Indonesia, Uzbekistan and Thailand, according to the company.
Under the Cross-border Interconnection Payment Gateway scheme, Ant Group planned to continue collaborating with global partners to "enhance the payment convenience and overall experience for foreigners visiting China, and allow more small and medium-sized businesses to benefit from cross-border tourism consumption," CEO Cyril Han Xinyi said.
Tencent said Weixin Pay currently supported 16 international digital wallets, enabling users to make payments in China using a QR code from their home wallet without needing to download the Chinese app.
The Chinese government has vowed to bolster policy support for cross-border payment systems, addressing a significant hurdle for visitors in a market dominated by local players.
In June, the Chinese central bank launched the Payment Connect programme with Hong Kong, linking the mainland's Internet Banking Payment System with Hong Kong's Faster Payment System to facilitate more convenient payments and money transfers.
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