NAB has become the first of Australia’s big four banks to support the Alibaba Group-backed Alipay mobile payment platform.
NAB said today that it has launched a pilot with a small group of its business merchant customers, with the bank intending to roll out support for Alipay across existing point of sale terminals early next year.
“This means from next year, Aussie businesses with a NAB merchant terminal can offer Chinese tourists Alipay, their preferred QR code payment method, in-store, and unlock an opportunity to promote their businesses on Alipay’s marketing platform which has 870 million active users,” said NAB executive general manager of deposit and transaction services Shane Conway.
Alipay was launched in 2004 and is operated by Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial.
“China is now Australia’s largest tourism market accounting for 81 per cent of the growth in tourism spend in Australia in the last 12 months,” said Alipay’s country manager for Australia and New Zealand, George Lawson.
“Enabling seamless payments with Alipay represents a significant commercial opportunity for Australian businesses.”
According to Alipay, it has more than 700 million active users in China. More than 10,000 Australian merchants already accept Alipay.
“Beyond facilitating transactions, Alipay’s marketing platform drives incremental customers and revenue as it offers the best exchange rates and reduces the anxieties associated with using a foreign currency,” Lawson said.
“We expect this deal will give NAB a significant advantage amongst business owners wanting to capitalise on the China opportunity.”