OCBC’S Singapore customers can use their banking app to make QR code payments in China from Friday (Sep 22), under a new partnership with Alipay operator Ant Group.  

Both companies are tackling the offline payments’ friction that many tourists face in China. Cash is sparsely used in the mainland, with nearly all brick-and-mortar stores – even street food vendors – accepting QR payments via Alipay or Tencent-owned WeChat Pay. 

Meanwhile, paying with foreign credit cards often comes with unfavourable foreign exchange rates and mark-up fees. 

There was an opportunity to better serve travellers in China by leveraging Ant as a partner, OCBC’s head of digital payments and ecosystems Gary Wong told The Business Times (BT).

“The reality is (that) we do not have the assets overseas. In China, credit card payment is not as prevalent as QR payment. We’ve done well in the credit card business, but clearly we have to be sensitised to the needs of… the customers as we enter different parts of the world.”

“How do we do that? We have to make sure we have partners whom we can depend on,” he said.

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Under the Ant partnership, the OCBC Digital app will have a scan-and-pay feature that integrates Alipay+, a suite of cross-border payments solutions launched by Ant in 2020. OCBC is the first Singapore bank to adopt Alipay+. 

Payments are made directly from OCBC customers’ Singapore bank accounts to China merchants that are part of the Alipay+ ecosystem, ranging from large retailers to street-side stalls.  

OCBC customers can either scan the store’s Alipay+ QR code using the bank app, or generate their own QR codes for merchants to scan. The latter method is commonplace in China. There is a daily transaction limit of S$1,000.

The exchange rates offered will be “competitive” compared to credit cards, an Ant spokesperson said. Customers will see the exchange rate on the OCBC Digital app before they confirm their transactions.

The partnership between OCBC and Ant comes ahead of the Asian Games in Hangzhou, where Ant is headquartered. The games kick off on Sep 23.

OCBC expects China travels to ramp up during this period, especially with the resumption of visa-free entry for Singaporeans into the mainland. Integrating Alipay+ also feeds into OCBC’s broader aims for the Chinese market, noted Wong.

“Whether it’s consumer business, corporate business, or commercial partnerships, everything is geared towards opening up China flows of monies, both into China and also outside of China. That’s critical for us,” he said.

The OCBC Digital app is one among several other foreign payment services that Alipay+ is enabling in China, ahead of the Asian Games. On Tuesday, Ant announced partnerships with six other Asian payment apps. 

They are Changi Pay (Singapore), TrueMoney (Thailand), Naver Pay and Toss Pay (South Korea), mPay (Macau) and Hipay (Mongolia). 

Alipay+ had previously enabled usage of three other regional e-wallets in China since 2022: Touch n’ Go eWallet (Malaysia), Kakao Pay (South Korea) and AlipayHK, the Hong Kong version of Alipay.

Ant sees Alipay+ filling in the “missing link” in the cross-border payments landscape, the company’s senior vice-president Douglas Feagin told BT. 

“Customers are very used to their own mobile digital payment capability, and they’re using it every day for different services, yet they haven’t been able to use it when they travel abroad. This (initiative) enables them to do that in a very user-friendly format,” he said. 

Besides bringing regional e-wallets into China, Ant is also focused on enabling their usage across various Asian markets. 

In the case of OCBC, the bank’s Alipay+ scan-and-pay feature can also be used in Malaysia and South Korea, where it was launched on Sep 8. 

The feature will be extended to other markets where Alipay+ is available, such as Japan, Hong Kong and Macau, by the end of the year.

OCBC’s Wong noted that focusing on cross-border payments opens up more possibilities for the bank. “Think about offshore investments, think about trade flows between entities in China or the greater region and Singapore – the potential is just immense and limitless,” he added.