The Rebisco group’s banking arm Asia United Bank (AUB) has teamed up with Alipay, the world’s largest mobile online payment platform, on an alternative payments solution catering to visitors from mainland China.
The new payment solution allows users to conveniently and seamlessly make mobile payments using their electronic wallets.
Alipay has more than 800 million users worldwide who transact with over tens of millions of stores worldwide, forming a merchant network covering 40 countries.
AUB has developed the AUB PayMate App to enable local merchants’ cashiers to accept Alipay in face-to-face transactions. An API (Application Programming Interface) will be available soon to facilitate the acceptance of e-commerce transactions so that merchants can sell their goods and services to these Chinese users.
Alipay is a fast, secure and convenient way to pay for shopping, dining, hotel and tourism-related activities for Chinese travelers, who form the second largest inbound tourists in the Philippines. Alipay also provides an array of marketing portals for both large and small merchants to reach the target Chinese audience.
“Alipay accepts many types of purchases and services from Chinese tourists. Our partnership harnesses the natural ecosystem of retail in today’s tech-driven world and push the innovation and flexibility that AUB has always been known for,” said AUB president Manuel Gomez.
“With AUB’s very strong merchant network and deep market knowledge, Alipay is confident that Chinese travelers coming to Philippines for work or play will find greater convenience in using mobile payment when they visit shopping malls, tourists attractions, stay in hotel or travel around the many beautiful Philippines islands,” said Rain Huang, Alipay business director for the Philippines.
“Alipay merchants enjoy next-day payments from AUB. To be accredited, merchants simply need to fill out our accreditation forms, open an AUB deposit account, have a smartphone, an internet connection, download the AUB PayMate App and undergo a quick and easy training from AUB,” said Mags Surtida, first vice president and group business head for AUB Credit Cards.
With the AUB Paymate App, an Alipay transaction can typically happen in three ways:
The cashier’s smart phone turns into a camera frame that can scan the Alipay user’s QR (quick response) code.
The cashier can generate a transactional QR code which an Alipay user can scan.
The merchant can choose to display a fixed QR code which the Chinese customer can scan as well.