Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) has achieved 80% of its 250,000 target cross-border QR payments in 2024 to date, announced the bank on Oct 22.
“It has been one year since OCBC added Alipay+ to its suite of cross-border QR payment offerings on our OCBC Digital app, joining UnionPay International, Thailand’s PromptPay, Malaysia’s DuitNow and Indonesia’s Quick Response Indonesian Standard,” says head of global consumer financial services, Sunny Quek.
He adds: “As it is, this target, which we are on track to meet, is more than four times the number of such payments made in 2023.”
Around 75% of the expenditure stems from Alipay+ usage in China, with Singapore travel agencies and platforms reporting a significant jump in Singaporeans travelling to the nation following the announcement of the 30-day visa-free arrangement earlier this year.
Use cases included transport, food, shopping at places such as Beijing’s Wangfujing Street or Shanghai’s New World City mall, or in tourist hotspots like Shanghai Disneyland.
By the end of September, the total amount spent was five times that of the whole of 2023.
See also: HSBC pulls back credit card business in China: Reuters
“We have observed that the average transaction for Alipay+ has doubled since the beginning of the year to $200 in the past three months. Additionally, since increasing the daily limit, almost 10% of our customers’ payments have exceeded $1,000. This indicates they are gaining confidence in using QR payments for their holiday expenses,” says Quek.
He concludes: “We will continue to evaluate new corridors for expansion, through our existing partnerships and new ones.”
As at 11.22 am, shares in OCBC are trading 17 cents higher or 1.12% up at $15.35.
