Ant International has been recognized as an 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 (PCAC).

Ant International and Alipay are predominant players in the CPG scheme, boasting the most card network and wallet partners, as well as the widest use cases and largest business volume.

The new CPG scheme aims to enhance connection efficiency and stabilize systems for international payment partners, facilitating their access to the Chinese market.

Alipay+, part of Ant International’s offerings for cross-border payments and digitization, will utilize this new direct connection to boost its partner ecosystem internationally, providing a smoother and more secure travel experience for global consumers and connecting various digital growth networks with 80 million Alipay merchants in China.

As a unified wallet gateway, Alipay+ now collaborates with 36 e-wallets and eight national QR payment systems, linking over 100 million merchants with 1.8 billion consumer accounts.

In addition, Alipay+ supports seven major international credit card brands and users from twelve regions to conduct transactions via scanning in the Chinese mainland.

Extensive Partnerships

Alipay+ has established broad partnerships with mobile payment initiatives in emerging markets to assist national digitization and growth strategies. Active international connections through Alipay+ include several payment systems like SGQR (Singapore), PayNet DuitNow (Malaysia), and others in Korea, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Uzbekistan.

The Asia-Pacific region recorded a staggering USD 9.8 trillion in e-wallet transactions in 2023, constituting nearly two-thirds of the global total and maintaining the highest e-wallet penetration rate worldwide.