Alipay now available in Malaysia
KUALA LUMPUR: The country’s largest financial service providers – Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) and CIMB Bank Berhad, recently partnered with China’s Ant Financial Services Group to enable the Alipay mobile wallet in Malaysia as an alternative cashless payment for Chinese tourists. Operated by Ant Financial, Alipay is an eWallet payment method, a secure place where shoppers can store funds to be used online. It has more than 450 million users in China and beyond. CIMB Group said in a statement that it would act as the settlement and merchant acquirer bank, allowing Chinese visitors to pay for their transactions in Yuan without concern about exchange rates. This is done through a simple barcode-scanning method that they are used to in their country.
Launched in 2004, Alipay currently has over 450 million active users. Both Maybank and CIMB said the service would go live in Malaysia in May 2017. According to Credit Suisse, the total value of online transactions in China grew from an insignificant size in 2008 to around RMB 4 trillion (US$660 billion) in 2012. Alipay is the world’s largest mobile and online payments platform since 2014. Maybank is the leader in merchant sales volume in Malaysia with a 37% market share, offering major card payment brands including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, UnionPay, JCB and MyDebit. CIMB Group chief executive Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Aziz said the entry of Alipay marked a notable milestone in the growth of mobile wallet payment services in Malaysia.
“The entry of Alipay marks a notable milestone in the growth of mobile wallet payment services in Malaysia. We are excited to work with Alipay to provide Chinese tourists a convenient and secure payment experience while in Malaysia and we target to go live with our merchants by May 2017, having received Bank Negara’s approval just recently,” he said.
Meanwhile, Maybank group strategy officer Michael Foong said: “As a leader in card payments, Maybank will now offer Alipay customers the added convenience and security of our comprehensive cashless payment channels, thereby expanding the geographical reach of their digital wallets and enhancing their travel experience in this country.” To date, CIMB is collaborating with Genting Malaysia Bhd, DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd, YTL Corp Bhd and Maxincome Resources Sdn Bhd, who operates the FamilyMart convenience store chain here, to be the pioneer merchants to accept Alipay mobile wallet payments in Malaysia.
Maybank and CIMB Bank also exchanged memorandums of unfderstanding with Ant Financial with Ant Financial represented by Douglas Feagin, Maybank by Foong and CIMB Group by Tengku Zafrul. Feagin, who is the Senior Vice President of Ant Financial said they were pleased to work with leading financial institutions in Malaysia and ASEAN to bring the convenience of the Alipay service its users wherever and whenever they need them.
Witnessing the MOU exchange were Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak, Alibaba Group executive chairman Jack Ma, CIMB Group chairman Datuk Seri Nazir Razak, Maybank group technology officer Mohd Suhail Amar Suresh and Ant Financial chairman Lucy Peng.
