Singtel snags Axiata e-wallet for regional payments network

Singapore

SINGTEL'S fledgling cross-border payments network has found its first partner in a non-associate market.

Boost Malaysia, a two-year-old electronic wallet from the digital services arm of Malaysia's Axiata Group, will join the VIA network, under an agreement announced on Wednesday.

When the roll-out is done, Boost's 3.7 million customers and 66,000 merchant outlets will be able to transact with other wallets in the VIA alliance, which now accepts Singtel's Dash and AIS Global Pay - a service from Singtel's Thai associate, AIS.

While Singtel has always planned to connect wallets across its regional telco associates in Thailand, India, the Philippines and Indonesia, as well as woo non-telco wallets, Boost is the first such partner to come on board.

Arthur Lang, Singtel's international group chief, said in a statement that the Axiata Digital deal "gives us presence in an important new market".

"This shows the tremendous potential for us to grow cross-border mobile payments even beyond the countries where Singtel's regional associates operate," he added.

Boost had previously picked up China's UnionPay as a global partner, in a tie-up announced by Axiata Digital last July. Axiata Group said in its most recent earnings briefing that Boost was "on the path to monetisation or validation" as at end-2018.

Under the latest agreement with Axiata Digital, Singtel will also work with its partner's Apigate platform to add capabilities for more product and service providers to the Singtel Open Platform digital payment portal.

Open Platform lets mobile customers across Singtel's regional group shop online and pay through either direct carrier billing or mobile wallets from the appropriate telcos.