• Published on 21 August 2017
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Bank's credit cardholders able to use WeChat Pay for range of services

Standard Chartered Bank (China) said it has linked up with WeChat Pay to allow the bank's credit cardholders to use the online payment platform operated by Tencent.

Standard Chartered China becomes the first global bank to cooperate with WeChat Pay which allows the bank's credit cardholders to pay for a full range of WeChat Pay services including entertainment, online shopping, water and electricity bills, and online education.

The tie-up between Standard Chartered China and WeChat Pay will attract more foreign users to use WeChat Pay in the future and helps globalize China’s mobile payment services, Standard Chartered Bank said in a statement.

“Chinese mobile payment services are developing rapidly, and have already been influencing global consumer business trends," said Zhu Yamin, head of retail banking at Standard Chartered China. “We look forward to working with leading technology companies like Tencent to offer even more benefits for our global clients with financial innovation.”

A report from the United Nations Development Programme showed that China's mobile payment market was worth US$2.9 trillion in 2016, a 20-fold increase from four years ago. But the main users are still within China.

The tie-up also offers the possibility for Standard Chartered Bank and WeChat to cooperate in overseas markets, said an industry insider who declined to be identified.

The person said the tie-up offers Standard Chartered another avenue to explore the online payment market beyond cooperation with Apple Pay, a usual preferred partner of foreign banks.

Re-disseminated by The Asian Banker  from Shine.cn