Ant International recognised as an inaugural foreign institution partner by China’s Cross-Border Interconnection Payment Gateway

This post is sponsored by Ant International.

Ant International has been appointed the inaugural Foreign Institution Partner (FIP) of China’s Cross-border Interconnection Payment Gateway (CPG), under the guidance of the People’s Bank of China and the Payment & Clearing Association of China.

Ant International and Alipay are the largest players in the CPG scheme with the largest number of card networks and wallet partners, the broadest use cases and the biggest business volume.

The new CPG scheme is designed to raise connection efficiency and improve system stability for overseas payment partners. Its timely launch opens a safe and smoother highway for these partners to access the Chinese market.

Alipay+, the cross-border payment and digitisation service under Ant International, will leverage this new direct connection set-up to accelerate the growth of its partner ecosystem to expand its global coverage. This will enable an even more convenient and secure travel experience for international consumers while helping international wallets connect their digital growth networks to 80 million Alipay merchants across China.

As a unified wallet gateway, Alipay+ now partners with 36 eWallets and eight national QR payment schemes and payment systems worldwide, connecting over 100 million merchants to 1.8 billion consumer accounts.

Chief executives from leading international wallet companies testing the seamless payment system in China.

As the FIP with the broadest fintech coverage in the new CPG scheme, Alipay+ now enables seven major international bank card brands and users from 12 countries and regions to scan-and-pay transactions in the Chinese Mainland. On top of that, Alipay+ also has various technology partnerships with over 20 eWallet and payment networks across Asia, Europe, and other regions.

Eric Jing (fourth from right), chairman of Ant Group and Ant International, and Cyril Han (third from right), CEO of Ant Group, celebrating China’s top international consumer destinations with card and wallet partners.

Alipay+ has built extensive partnerships with government-sponsored mobile payment schemes in emerging markets to support national agendas for digitisation and inclusive growth.

Eight national QR schemes and payment systems are developing an active international presence via Alipay+, including SGQR (Singapore), PayNet DuitNow (Malaysia), ZeroPay (South Korea), Bakong (Cambodia), NCHL/FonePay (Nepal), LankaPay (Sri Lanka), QRIS (Indonesia), and HUMO (Uzbekistan).

The Asia Pacific region reported a US$9.8 trillion in eWallet transaction volume in 2023, accounting for nearly two-thirds of the global total. It also has the world’s highest eWallet penetration rate.

About Ant International

With headquarters in Singapore, and operations across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America, Ant International is a leading global digital payment, digitisation and financial technology provider. Through collaboration across the private and public sectors, its unified techfin platform supports financial institutions and merchants of all sizes to achieve inclusive growth through a comprehensive range of cutting-edge digital payment and financial services solutions.

To learn more, please visit https://www.ant-intl.com.

About Alipay+

Ant International’s Alipay+ is a unified wallet gateway with cross-border payment and digitisation services that help connect global merchants to consumers. Consumers enjoy seamless payments, a broad choice of deals and the convenience of digital services using their preferred payment app/eWallet while travelling abroad. Many small and medium-sized businesses already use Alipay+ digital tools to enhance efficiency and achieve omni-channel growth.