Thai, Chinese firms tie up in cross-border payment

Douglas Feagin, Senior Vice President of the Ant Group and Monsinee Nakapanant, Co-president of Ascend Money Co, the operator of TrueMoney. (Photo source: Bangkokpost.com)

Bangkok - TrueMoney, a leading fintech company in Thailand, has partnered with Ant Group of China to launch cross-border mobile payments between Thailand and China, allowing Thai tourists to use TrueMoney e-wallet to make payments to tens of millions of merchants in China.

Cross-border payments are powered by Alipay cross-border mobile payment ecosystem with more than 10 million payment points in China. Alipay provides marketing and digitalisation solutions, and is operated by the Ant Group, a financial technology giant.

Monsinee Nakapanant, Co-president of Ascend Money Co, the operator of TrueMoney, said the cooperation with the Ant Group marks a significant milestone in the company's streamlining of cross-border payments to make it as effortless internationally as it is for domestic users.

There are 28 million people in Thailand using the TrueMoney app at present, she said, adding thanks to the partnership with the Ant Group and the Alipay ecosystem, TrueMoney is now accepted by tens of millions of merchants in China.

Since the end of last year, TrueMoney has expanded cross-border payment services and become available at Thais’ most preferred destinations within Asia such as Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore and Malaysia.

Meanwhile, the Ant Group recently welcomed seven new leading e-wallets and payment apps from Asia to the “Alipay -in-China” programme, a major initiative of the Ant Group to help China internationalise mobile payment services.

The Alipay system has now brought 10 Asian e-wallets to the Chinese mainland by partnering with more than 20 local mobile payment partners, which have more than 1.4 billion global payment accounts, including tens of millions of global merchants.

Douglas Feagin, Senior Vice President of the Ant Group and head of Alipay Cros-Border Mobile Payment Services, said through Alipay , TrueMoney users can already make transactions with many global online merchants as well as retail stores in countries that are top travel destinations for Thais, including Singapore, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the UK, Italy and France.

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