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DUBAI / WAM
Mashreq Bank on Tuesday announced its partnership with Alipay, an online and mobile payment platform operated by Ant Financial Services Group. The first-of-its-kind association with Alipay, enables Chinese customers carry out payments at merchant outlets using their Alipay digital wallets.
The move reaffirms Mashreq’s position as a leader in digital payments and innovation in the UAE.
Alipay currently has over 600 million active users in China and almost all Chinese tourists travelling overseas are Alipay users. According to Dubai Tourism, UAE represents one of the fastest-growing tourist destinations for the Chinese, with 41 percent increase in the number of Chinese visitors last year. Recent developments like visa on arrival will add further impetus to the growing number of Chinese tourists in the country.
Pankaj Kundra, Head of Payments at Mashreq Bank, said, “We are pleased to bring Alipay to the UAE. The UAE remains a popular tourist destination, having hosted an estimated 700,000 Chinese tourists in 2017 and growing at an exponential rate.â€