Visa Teams With Tencent to Grow Chinese Remittances via Digital Wallet
by Fintech News Singapore November 17, 2023Visa, a global leader in digital payments, and Tencent Financial Technology, the fintech arm of Tencent, have announced a partnership at the Singapore Fintech Festival 2023 that will broaden Visa’s reach in the Chinese remittance market.
This collaboration will enable Weixin users to receive inbound remittances directly in their digital wallets, significantly expanding the Visa Direct network’s reach to over one billion Weixin users in Mainland China. a major player in the global inbound remittance market.
Digital wallets offer a convenient and secure way for consumers to conduct financial transactions without sharing sensitive account or card details. Instead, transactions can be completed with just the recipient’s wallet ID or registered phone number.
Shirley Yu, Group General Manager at Visa Greater China, emphasised the rapid growth of digital wallets in cross-border transactions. In 2021, there was a 48% increase amounting to US$16 billion in cross-border transfers through digital wallets.
Shirley Yu
Shirley noted that,
“Some of the world’s largest inbound remittance markets in the Asia Pacific region – including Greater China, India, the Philippines and Bangladesh – have the highest penetration of digital wallets, making wallets a critical receiving endpoint for cross-border remittance. Wallets are also a crucial conduit for greater financial inclusion to reach populations who may not have access to traditional banking services.”
This partnership with Tencent builds upon Visa’s previous collaborations with Thunes and TerraPay, enhancing Visa Direct’s capabilities. Visa Direct now boasts a capacity of over 8.5 billion endpoints, including more than 3 billion cards, 3 billion accounts, and 2.5 billion digital wallets.
Royal Chen
By connecting with Visa Direct’s client network of financial institutions, we can now seamlessly connect customers from these institutions to Weixin users from Visa Direct eligible markets. The connection not only opens up Tencent’s own ecosystem while meeting compliance requirements, but also streamlines the work for our partners and bridges the gap between different financial ecosystems, making sending money as easy as sending a message,”
commented Royal Chen, Vice President of Tencent Financial Technology.
